activist because i have my freedom not being into anyone or any party if i like you if you do something what are you a democrat or republican carm how do you as for u s senate i'm running as an independent because i believe very much on fighting for issues not i think when the biggest problem we have today is people pick a side and then ends all conversation so i really focus on issues all the time i'm also self funded i haven't out there and no one can i vote i am free and i only work for you the individual voter because no one's giving money i have no no favors i'm down to three cats i live in burlington i work in the biotechnology field for about gosh thirty some years or so recognized world leader in that industry very active in that i work up and saying all right now been there for fourteen years working so quite a while i'm also working very hard to bring jobs to vermont and that's why the reason i'm running actually is because i've watched so many kids i coach a lot of team soccer team soccer basketball teams all these different sports cub scouts and everyone's leaving they're not going back that's wrong we have in mind is the prettiest place in the world we don't need to pay people to come here create jobs and i mean well paying clean jobs and we'll all be able to live much more happily and for generations to come we can build the vermont we used to have and can have again thank you very much thank you next up we have bruce bruce an independent from reedsburg thank you all the entire having us and i got my motto is hey can we just get along you know i'm not you you're not me i do things you probably don't do and you buy do a few things i don't do but we're neighbors and we get along and that's the vermont i come to a custom of is like and i found that in the united states constitution it's called to ensure the domestic and quality and really also i see come out of washington these days is the stir the domestic turmoil and that includes even our own senator  representing us down there looking for a revolution we had a revolution two hundred forty two years ago in his country and what we've got now is the united states constitution which tells me what i can do a bill of rights will tell you what i got  the declaration of independence it tells me why because those right turned out to us by our creator and that's not me so the reason for government is to protect those rights the rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and to order a more the other thing i want to do is avoid civil war i do believe we're headed that way if we don't stream things out in the constitution is how i would remedy that thank you thank you next up we have edward gilbert an independent from  you everybody for showing up and having us this evening my name is edward gilbert native born from on or from barry towne very town elementary school graduate high school and like many i wasn't really sure what i wanted to do after we were bought up by half a metrics that will technology is certainly impacted many industries across the medical field business and i went back into the u s army thirty one twenty thank you and next up we've got brad peacock an independent from shops very thank you very much thank you for having me while i'm quite a bit nervous but this is my first foray into politics little nerve wracking sitting next to senator sanders here but the reason why i got into this was i didn't see a lot of people like myself a lot of working class people who represent  us you know i'm a farmer i'm lucky if i make about thirty two thousand dollars this year and it's it's a great life i love it but i'm not sure that i can make it happen for much longer health insurance is going crazy our deductible is just insane i have thousands of dollars in the bank i already have thousands of dollars in student loan debt thousands of dollars in medical bills because i had a chronic sinus infection and i go to the hospital it worries me it worries me for the people of this state i was born and raised here i love it here and i'd love to stay i'm the only one of four kids that has been able to stay  and i'm looking to make it a little bit more affordable thank you and next up we have senator bernie sanders an independent from burlington thank you travel soap and team for sponsoring this segment everybody for being here and all  parenthood for their support and hope to continue working with them to protect women's rights i want to thank the sierra club for their support because there is no issue to my mind globally more important than protecting our planet from climate change abroad and others have raised some of the important issues that we work on and i am very proud to be a leader in the united states senate in saying that health care is a right not a privilege in my legislation which calls for medicare for all now has the support of a significant majority of the american people and more and more people in congress  introduced legislation which said essentially that in america has some it works forty hours a week that person should not be living in poverty and that we have to raise the minimum wage to a living wage which in my view is fifteen dollars an hour and that also means that we have to end the absurdity of women earning eighty cents on the dollar compared to men and we've also been very active in education in the fight to make public colleges and universities to wish and free and to demand the wealthiest people in this country st forty years was the founder of the burlington emergency shelter back in one nine hundred eighty two we successfully helped eighty percent of those who came to us on their feet with an average length of stay in less than three weeks use the burlington shelters model to start shelters and saying all bids barry camp in maine and another shelter with a good neighbor downtown burlington for long term are core attics i've never run for office before the events of the last few years have made me to get involved i've been democrat for an activist program fifty years the issues of homelessness and opiate addiction are very important to me my son wrestled with a heroin addiction for thirteen years i'm pleased to say that he's been clean for a year and a half there are many issues that are very important to me climate change is one of them women's rights are very important the agriculture farmers in the state are held to one standard while towns are held to another farmer who loses permit top rate while the town when it rains it dumps tons of waste water insulate and that needs to be rectified looking to help create more housing for the disabled i would be very interested in that child thank you thank you finally we have the only member of a political party here tonight mr laurence the banner republican from manchester go ahead sir thank you paul and thank from college and running a nonprofit educational organization going back to school building several small business is a i've had the privilege of working with three different presidential offices including reagan bush and clinton gave me two things rather than his own personal and political presidential aspirations and desire to spread socialist ideas of our great country secondly going to remind us of reinforce and reinvigorate the trot and true pathways to individual and societal greatness which have always made our country the envy of the whole world and i wish to promote those ideas and this  targeted a dozen democrats and media organizations while we may never truly understand what motivated the perpetrators to commit these acts and many americans have them to a coarsening of the political rhetoric the united states i'd like to start this forum by asking each of you and i want to say to my friend on the end how kind she was when when i bumped into her at secretary of state's office when we were filing our petitions and we have a deep admiration for hillary clinton in common and are both liberal democrats at heart center sanders well being the people listening to what people are saying should make everybody here very proud to be a vermonter people who are serious people who want to improve life in this country in the state and we have heard people who were tardy to improve lives whether it's opportunity to meet on so it was a pleasure to me mr bush and i have to agree with what brad said we had a good meeting that day and i think the reason we got together was we were both concerned about us of being able to bait each other and  neighbors and friends and be able to communicate and we were both concerned about the loss of the ability to communicate between people and that's basically why we got together so we could see that we had different views of things but we were still neighbors and we're still vermonters that we can still go on and be be friendly with each other and actually become friends so as thank you mr vest i like the best i'd like to thank senator senator sanders of course because he's really paved the way for a lot of us f many years ago making a difference i appreciate that mr bush the next mayor we don't agree on everything but we do believe the constitution i love our constitution the fact that you can amend your constitution two by two thirds with majorities so there's not a lot of opportunities there thank you very much grateful thank you very much we're going to stick with this topic for just another couple of minutes here this is actually a question from an audience member what is the cause of this renewed surge in political violence and what role do our iran is because this arose in a perspective of decency and that is from the top down so the very the most sacred office in our land the president in the united states constantly oday we have a whole lot of people in this country who are suffering with mental illness we have hundreds billion plus guns floating around and what we have seen in years past before trump terrible terrible shootings of people walking into schools and knowing down children unbelievable but i do have to say that today we have a president who is inflaming an already bad situation when you have a president who goes to montana and says to a politician hey you all my guy because your body slam somebody in the media when you have a president who calls the media mainstream media enemies of the people and it is rather when people are threatening i mean literally almost physically threatening members of the media when you have a president when he was running for office and they are going to pay your legal bills if you beat up protest what  it gets accented by president trump's continuous a texas dishonesties dishonesty it's been a fifty seven percent increase in hate crimes in the last two years since president trunk came into office other and i think that trump is is very very responsible for a good portion of the political violence that's happening in our country and i thank you  well i think it's incumbent upon anyone who's going to seek public office or is already in public office to not be a polarizer but to be a unifier unfortunately senator sanders could go on for a long time about donald trump but he himself has been the most polarizing figure on a national national profile for longer than donald trump has been in office so if i'm elected if i have the privilege of representing the people of vermont in the senate i would seek to be an example of unifying unifying by ideas and solutions because after all why is somebody sent to the senate to represent the people  to find the best solutions for the biggest problems and i will look for those solutions whether they come from a democrat a republican or an independent fact i try to put blind design in that even look where those ideas came from on april eleventh wayne thank you a quarter start of my campaign has been a focus on issues not size i really think we all need that issues don't pick a side no two people agree you know i mean your best friends you don't agree on everything and that way think of that and that will help us to unite also we need to from washington calling for forms of violence in the lead you know we need to be careful what we say even because we try to get the now people may take it the wrong way and go with it and we just need to be cautious with that and something else we need to be cautious with is acting on misinformation should a lot of misinformation out there if we act on misinformation we're going to make a mistake we have to get to the room and find accurate information and act on that we may be wrong may be right but least we won out have been mistaken so what's missing in is the in the debate is the ability to listen was we're doing is hollering at each other  nobody wants to listen and search for the common ground maybe there are some places we ought not to go on both sides but there is some common ground we can agree on and build start to build a relationship and terrence that tear it all down thank you thank you m hoover to comment on that it's definitely on both sides and that's part of the reason why i ran as an independent i am more of a fiscal conservative i do lean more to the right i must admit having an opportunity to meet is elizabeth in shape or there are two observers one from frankfurt germany the other from just outside of moscow to observe our our process and our democracy here in vermont  everybody should be very proud of the fact that you do have the right of freedom of expression without the threat of kicking someone low or sending  threatening letters to deseret murrin i think it's extremely immature it's unprofessional and as a u s senator to deflect blame either way i think there's some adults that definitely  said these are my thoughts and you responded by saying they're pretty pathetic thoughts and wonder if you consider that sort of remark simple and you have thirty seconds to respond to that to make statements that are so outrageously well sure mr oh i'd be very happy to answer it and actually i was talking about the collectivization and the only shift in the direction of the whole economy which is common to every socialist country obviously north korea in the extreme totalitarian dictatorship which doesn't resemble oh let's see it doesn't resemble venezuela as much  but the result of course is very similar in terms of the economic deprivation of its citizens so separating the political issue from the economic issue taluk tearing collectivization of profit where the government decides that it owns you the profits of the means of production is socialism the end result is always the same so i think you know senator sanders might want to consider whether his worth his choice of words that it was well advised to not awareness and understanding to this and demick problem yet congress has taken no action to address what would you do in the u s senate to combat sexual assault and harassment and why don't we start with mr gilbert will move that way  vermont these kind of displays of sexual assault no one deserves a sexual assault period especially a woman and i feel that  it's being used as a political tool in these present times and i feel that they should start teaching our children of the young age out of the young gentleman and young ladies again and being able to give mutual respect and i think that is something that has been lost in the in the recent present time and rather than tossing mud an accusation started utilizing d n a technology use in order to actually find out who is telling the truth and who is making up and it goes through some rough times and what we see is a lot of times there is retribution which is where we need to be free from the threat of retribution and to bring it forth and speak the truth and just get it out there without the fear of retribution it is one of the main things but there's much more to this subject than what we're going to do in ninety seconds but that's that's one of the things and  so i got to say thank you to best to thank you i have two daughters who are in middle school and college though very near and dear to my heart in this regard i think about this all the time i'm fortunate to live in burlington the burlington school district and they've really made come out of their way to help educate the young kids from elementary school all the way up about respect and balance or ease and it's been very successful i have to say so it starts with the young ones at the school and then beyond that laws we need to be tough with our laws and fair and the third part is sometimes our laws are great but they languish for years and years before penalties given and i think we need to find ways to speed that up speed up or legal process so that there's real cause and effect i did this well guess what six months nine months a year later you're facing out consequence i think oh oh our walding is changing in so overnight because it's not a problem that's come upon us overnight the problem of sexual harassment which is a lack of respect for another pete person's basic human rights to have themselves not assaulted that has descended upon our civilization over decades and generations and the fix is what is one that starts under the roof of the homes of americans where there's a father and a mother in the house who teach their children love respect how to protect themselves and how to treat each other unfortunately they have been many movements in this country that have tended to talk down the basic infrastructure of family which is  very building block of american or any good civilization and what we need to do is we need to have a dialogue and discourse that promotes celebrates reinforces the basic institution called the american t go ahead look as far as me to movement i just have to say it's about time it's about time i've always recognized that unfortunately a majority of men seem to have a lack as mock the accuser and supported other candidates also that been involved in sexual assault thank you thank you senator sanders and your answer if you would mind also just letting us know if there's any legislation you have sponsored since since the time they keep  assault as everybody knows is is kind of at an epidemic level in this country about twenty twenty five percent of women indicate that one point or another in their lives they have been sexually assaulted they answer your question pull the religious lesion in the congress now to protect employees in the congress to make sure that when women have been assaulted there is an impartial body for them to go to without fear to make their case and that is something  citizens women worthy of absolute respect and that we have got to educate our young boys about a proper attitude toward women bullying is not acceptable sexism is not acceptable thank you center this week so i'd just like to point out that it doesn't have to be a mother and a father it could be two fathers to two mothers that can hollywood and and we really need we really need to think about that but we need to get get to family values and it's absolutely true at the home and lead by example so how do you how do you treat women how do you treat your mother how do you treat your sisters so it's it is really it's really about leading by example thank you thank you this next question  is pretty straightforward so you can answer as a yes or no if you would like if you need to elaborate a tiny bit that's acceptable but try to keep it under thirty seconds you all are running for a six year term in the u s senate can you pledge tonight that if elected you will serve all six years and you will not run for another public office that would keep you from finishing your term and why don't we start with senator sanders and we'll move this way and we would talk to the other candidates who ran for president as but if you're asking me to make an absolute pledge as to whether all be running for president i'm not going to make the pledge i have not made simple truth is i have not made that decision but i'm not going to sit here and tell you that i may not run i may run on the other hand i may not the question was since you're running for a six year term i know what the question will you will you serve yourself you're just directed from elected president of the united states probably impossible to be a senator and a president of the same time a question there's probably no but i haven't made that decision of the world so the answer is no you're not committing to serving out your six year terms and the answer is i have not yet made a decision as though i will be running for president if i run and when the likelihood will add that it's pretty evident that senator sanders is laying the groundwork for a run which will probably come into full thrust on november seventh so i think the people have a right to demand to know from him if they elect him on frustrate with the candidates in two thousand and sixteen i wrote my name and so technically i've run for president any way yes i would absolutely pledge i really want this job i have a lot of energy and i would love it if you all voted for me us that i thank you six years my goal is to serve six years if i don't make it for some reason please investigate what i was looking into going to do is definitely go for term limits and i believe bernie sanders back when i first met him ran on that platform before he became a u s senator before he decided to pursue his present  presidency when yes you did i was there i may have been a lot younger but term limits is definitely something i agree with you do two terms of the u s senate and then if you want to run for president and you can you can earn the american trust and become the president united states you have every right the constitution to pursue it you want to respond to term limits actually i have never supported term limits and don't support it right now because i think it's on  so i think that's just you senator sanders it looks likely that governor phil scott will win re election next week as a republican are you at all concerned that if you were not to win reelection that he would along here this is a question that was submitted by a member of the audience here where do you stand on commonsense gun control and why and why do you or don't you support for months recent gun legislation if i could just add on to that question would you support those same measures at the federal level since you are running for federal seat and not for a state seat why don't we start with mr boucher and secular humanist progressive socialism and what does that progress to if progress is the godless communism is the next step and sucking the soul out of people in our universities and school system is what's really at the root cause of this along with some other things and if you don't believe me you can read some of the jack sawyers comments that he made along with this we have a situation of pharmaceutical drugs and depression the two don't mix and that's one of the reasons i believe in the pharmaceutical marijuana also mr vest and i just want remind you to stick to the question as much as you can  i thank you yes i support the second amendment i also know that the second that was written in the seventeen hundreds and there was no forethought of this the kind of guns and weapons we have today so at some point whether it's today or tomorrow guns will get faster and more stronger and more powerful most safe state in vermont that we want to start instituting restrictions on american citizens to keep and bear arms last year there were three only gun murders in the state there was a year  long ago where there was zero those numbers are the envy of every other state in the union new york state new york city and chicago all they have wonderful gun laws a lot of restrictive gun laws piling more on all the time and they are the murder capitals of the united states so what is the real motivation behind people who want to restrict the right to keep and bear arms i don't know you'd have to ask them but it's certainly not going to make money to say for now as far as schools when you start your car you put it turn the ignition you put it in gear it gets up to fifty five miles an hour that takes several seconds when you want to use stop the car you don't apply the brake to the engine you apply to the wheel the most dynamic manifestation of movement my talking about you want to protect the students you put people in the schools with guns to protect them ok thank you i do support sensible gun legislation i believe in the second amendment in that everybody certainly has a right to personal protection to hunting weapons but we have comparatively to other countries of nominal excess of gun violence in our country if you look at countries like japan where there were twelve murders last year in norway where it's in single digits we have thousands upon thousands and we need to close loopholes have gun shows there needs to be a waiting period to cut down on crimes of passion i believe  rifles fifteen's there's no need for them hunting or protecting your family i believe they should be banned senator sanders is taking n r a money he has voted against the brady bill five times and i think that  that's wrap it up it's a difficult area for senator sanders senator sanders if you want to take a couple extra seconds to respond to that in your answer you can go ahead and do that never took any money in fact when i ran for reelection the house with strong opposition from  the lobby look nobody in this room or in this country has a magical land so the herbal violence that is taking place all over this country and it's not just what happened in pittsburgh you know the date it's happening almost every day in america in my view we do need what we support the sensible commonsense common sense gun safety legislation by the way not a radical idea this is supported by the overwhelming majority of the american people including gun owners what does that mean it means that we strengthen the background check it means that we end the gun show loophole it means that we end the schoolma'am provision and we would agree stop the sale and distribution of assault weapons in this country thank you i'm just going to ask you a quick question that you did not respond to mr fatah ski's point about voting against the brady bill which in fact he did do you also said and after the july two thousand and twelve aurora colorado  shooting a movie theater he told the addison county independent that quote decisions about gun control should be made as close to home as possible at the state level and not support a number of federal gun laws i wonder if you can explain your change of heart it's not a change of heart i think george support very much what the state of vermont has gone and that legislation but i think obviously you need action at the federal level as well terms of the brady bill i made a promise when i ran for office hundred ninety that i would not support the brady bill and among other things what has happened after the brady bill is that we were able to get computerized background checks which is a much more efficient and effective approach i'd ask you to repeat the question so i've kind of forgotten what it was but i forgot to tell you i think the question was did you support the gun control legislation that governor scott supported here in vermont and would you support similar measures of the federal  ok i'm a hunter i'm a gun owner i support the second amendment now do i support the common sense gun laws i think that i do what i don't what i didn't support was how it was rushed through i think every voice deserves to be heard and that means holding a hearing for every piece of the legislation they held a hearing for the universal background check but they added in the clip  and the age of twenty one and maybe something else at the end without holding a public hearing so those are things that i would like to see in here from the from the general public about before i would make a decision especially before i make a decision at the federal level but i'm sure that there would be over say in committee hearings about that now i also do support the c d c now that the  remember oslo norway that was where a police officer or an individual impersonated police officer and went on a you know an easy killing spree now i don't support the kind of school shootings that we're witnessing or or the violence that we're seeing in the streets and a lot of it is because of the rhetoric and being a being a former service members to military branches like i can have used just about every weapon in the army with the exception of the opportunity shoot few tanks having opportunity to serve on two fast tech nuclear submarines whether it was a tomahawk cruise missile of mark forty eight torpedo i'm sorry i have been proven under stress in everything else that if you're properly trained you can properly properly save and help people with sentiment thank you this is a question from a viewer at home that we received before the debate under article one section three of the united states constitution the senate is responsible for trying all impeachments to the second question is no as far as what an impeachable offenses we have to go to the constitution to understand that it's high crimes and misdemeanors and the bar then has to be confirmed by a two thirds majority of the senate the reason it's so high is because there's so much trust invested in the chief executive and president of the united states so there's a lot of atmospherics and a lot of personality issues and a lot of self expression that many different people could choose not to like about the president but none of those things rise to even close to the level where one could plausibl colluding with the enemy and i believe that president trump should go to trial i think that there's enough evidence there what course we're waiting on the motor report which will certainly was involved in shady tactics and very curious to see him with president fact it turns out that he did that is an impeachable offense if the president tries to impede that investigation by firing molo or in any other way not allowing this investigation to go forward what's called the structure of justice which i also think is that impeachable offense right now but investigation is going on i think boulder is doing a serious job and i think we can answer that question until that brad when you expose that national security information even as secretary of state that used to be an offense that would send me off to prison if i exposed gains with american taxpayers money completely feel so waste of time he's he is the present president whether you like the way he uses twitter or not he's utilizing twenty first century technology i must position of trying a case i don't have an answer because i haven't seen the evidence right now and i keep an open mind both ways i may have to rule one layer of the other yes certainly for an  am troubled by some of his activities he relates to putin and i still don't know what he did for those two hours alone i also am concerned about his closeness to other parties north korea etc but all that said is a very very high bar for impeachment so until things actually presented that would prove impeachment i think i don't really know waiting for the mueller investigation and any other information that come comes out thin because i am a people person and i here for a change thank you very much as a u s senator your number one job is to vote in the senate in your first term in the  sanders you must only one point seven percent of the roll call votes that were held that's very close to the average of your peers but in your second term it was not the case in twenty sixteen you missed nearly seventy one percent of the roll call that was one hundred fifteen out of one hundred sixty three votes that were held at county can each of you pledge tonight that you will miss no more than five percent of the roll call votes during and when you run for president of the united states to go around the country and you have to campaign in order to do that and i am very proud that here in vermont on the primary looks like we received eighty six percent of the vote that's the highest percentage of and you can put it in the campaign but the bottom line is you're asking me the same question as you asked me before i return by the way well i did miss many votes on most of those votes were kind of lopsided votes but on key votes where my boat was needed i did come back to washington so you're asking me once again will i be running for president of the united states if somebody  is a gentleman running for president they're going to miss some books if i run for president united states with all due respect sir i am aware that you ran for president sixteen i am also aware that you ran for u s senate in two thousand and twelve and i'm also aware that run for president voting i would suggest that you check when people run for president or in the senate if they misspoke and the answer is they don't that's correct and we'll move on just but for the record i do want to know that there were several other u s senators who ran for percent of the votes if you're absolutely committed to not missing more than a percent of them so i will miss that many and neither will i be condescending arrogant or insolent about it thank you mr thank you i will absolutely pledge to not miss five percent vote fact i will pledge that i will crawl over broken glass in my shorts to ok we don't want to go t furthermore i think it's astounding that senator sanders is being allowed to dodge the question of whether he would accept a reelection to do a job that he will not pledge to fulfill he's running for president  n this room or to take notice of his answer that he will not commit to being president to do his job there's a united states senator from mom i am leading the effort successfully to move this country to health care for all leading the successfully to raise the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour leading the effort successfully to make sure that public colleges and universities are free to make moving forward successfully not to give be to be to set the record the best attendance ever in the u s senate so that's what i'll do thank you all and then i'd also like to get the applause them that bernie gets that would be a good record and he won he went up there all right  visigoth so my past record work history i've been very dedicated to my job as far as being present for that i cannot say that for sure i did hear burning say one thing that his vote wouldn't change anything but as long as my voice was heard if there was another pressing issue that i needed more information on i would go and get it if the circumstances mean to go do that and without knowing the circumstances that may arise this thing that's going on in the border is one thing i would want to go down there and if what i was going to vote on is going to pass or my vote wouldn't matter i would i would take the opportunity to go to the site and see what was going on so i could act on you making it five percent is i think it's pretty easy in a submarine for three hundred thirty three days out of a year we were there twenty four seventh's so i would and being as motivated as i am to pursue term limits i would try to make every single vote unless there is some medical emergency within my family and even then i'll find a way to cast it one way or another thank you this because so much to my husband should grin i told him last night that i course i would absolutely be under five percent great on two questions or one question you can pose one question to one other candidate if you could please try to keep your help ten million john would be in great shape that's nonsense you know a quick break we don't know what you're talking about about a ten million dollar donation in fact what we have done is not only helped lead the  against the disastrous citizens united supreme court decision which allows a billion as to buy elections but it's what happens my presidential campaign has opened up and i think began the process for candidates all over this country not to look at large corporations and wealthy individuals for their contributions and what you are seeing today all over this country is people saying as i said in two thousand and sixteen we're not going to as if that was going to solve the problems of america's lower end workers actually my idea is that i noticed that fifteen dollars an hour actually doesn't cut it especially when workers are rejecting the increase because they would lose if you could get a  n here it is pretty soon as they would exist they would lose their existing benefits so my question to senator sanders is would you join me in supporting an end to the benefits cliff which causes otherwise productive people to either stay home or give up jobs where the increase in their salary would make them ineligible for existing benefits two points no one you know you're right fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage is not enough but you know  it's substantially better than eight dollars or ten dollars or twelve dollars and can make a heck of a lot of difference in a working person's life so i am very proud to introduce the lead legislation which was thirty  raise the minimum wage to fifteen bucks an hour and i'm delighted to see that all over this country that minimum wage is going up to fifteen dollars an hour and i'm delighted i'm proud that i'm a zone as a result of our efforts as raise them minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour if you're talking about as i understand what you're saying that there are instances where people get a wage increase they lose lose boot slams or they lose their benefits if that's what you're referring to you're right that is absurd and that is a disincentive to many people to go out and get decent paying jobs so would you join me in sponsoring let's let's move on i don't have to join you i've been there for years on the  saying i was going to run all of that is great news to me i'm not aware that and here's the simple and honest truth people can like it or not agree and i have not made that decision you know my focus is on getting elected to the united states  history of this later on and i think that would be my answer that at the end of that they've got to stay close to the people and once you get the washing it is an incredible bubble and you're surrounded by powerful lobbyists who you know one should a vote their way and i think is one hundred five percent of our gross domestic product my question is have you contacted and had a conversation with the federal reserve as our dollar its value and  no i have not my contact with the federal reserve was to demand what the fed after the wall street bailout to find out in fact how much money the f lent not only the corporations of this money this country and not only the banks in this country but the central banks over the world but your point is well taken in the sense that we have i think now about a twenty one trillion dollar national debt and one of the many reasons i voted against you for the rich is will drive the debt by another trillion and a half dollars and one of the other areas why the way that is not talked about terribly much by republicans what many democrats is we have to take a hard look at a seven hundred billion dollars defense budget and they depend a fence department that has is the only in the state of vermont i think i would ask you to do something about health care and student loan outstanding seeing how both of us are still battling with student loan debt really one hundred percent all right i'm glad you brought that up because i is designed to express the fact that all people in the united states citizens have the right to make all the choices that they want about their own lives i believe that people have the right to make their choices about lifestyle is there any other part of that act that question that i have not responded to that you would like to hear me say so that's a no or perhaps you want to educate me further about the details of the equality discriminated for housing not getting fired for being totally support people having equal rights so that they're not discriminated against for the choice of lifestyle and not discriminated against in jobs i support that country and in the world and what they said is that climate change is very real climate change is created by human activity climate change is already causing devastating problems of this country and around the world and he was what is most scary is that he said if we don't get you agree that climate change is real that it is man made and that it is a ready causing irreparable harm and that we need to arrest the action to deal with it every time this subject comes up it's proceed with an amount of fear mongering that is then not addressed with any solutions i'm going to come up with the solutions first and leave the fear mongering to senator sanders who has no solutions he only wants to put somebody on the spot thinking he's going to earn brownie points with the voters so here's what i have to say and he it's good news you know our governor has talked about having thirty five percent renewable energy by two thousand and fifty i say that that's a very pale and wimpy objective especially when the head of google engineering rate kurtz while has stated that if the federal government only got out of the way of picking favorites in the renewable energy field we could have ninety to one hundred percent renewables in twelve years by two thousand and thirty so the us senator i'm somebody who wants to have renewables who wants to have the cleanest air wants to have people that you give the choice of their energy i will see that the the innovation stifling effort of the federal government to pick and choose favorites over and that the the the renewables they're going to have i'm going to just interrupt you quickly you didn't actually answer the question which is whether you believe climate everybody we i was going to ask you this question i'm glad somerset is brought up i'd like to give each of you a chance to answer the question so why don't we just start going back along this way and i will repeat the question and senator sanders correct me if i get it wrong but  whether climate change is real whether it's manmade and whether it's already causing devastating effects on this planet had mr switkowski climate change is real it is caused by man you look at  has the storms that we get are tremendous the ninety nine it's clear that with ninety nine percent of scientists agree i believe it's very real and it is caused by a set of centers we'd like to answer your own question not answer the question i gave in my view climate change is very real and if we love our children and our grandchildren and if we want to leave them a planet that is healthy and habit have got to stand up to the fossil fuel industry have the guts to take them on to tell them that their short term profits are not more important than the future of this planet and that we need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy and by the way when we do that we will not only save the planet we'll lower energy costs increase millions of good paying jobs  you i absolutely believe climate change is real whether it's manmade or not i mean i personally believe so but i think we all get bogged down in a little bit too much it's real so let's take care of it  as a farmer i've been on the front lines of climate change for thirteen years now and i've seen the erosion in our fields i've seen the diseases in the past go crazy and it's getting harder and harder to farm organically so that's going to be a major problem but that's my life so my life is on and so is all the farmers in this state and throughout this throughout this country and world could you please rephrase the question do you believe that climate change is real yes man made i do believe it's real ok and if you not agree with it being totally male manmade yet but please complete and whether it's already causing devastating harm to the planet it's definitely causing  some issues but i definitely do not feel that the the state of vermont being the smallest footprint state should be one to pay the carbon taxes i mean you've got number one texas number two california number three pennsylvania and yet they're coming to our legislature one of the poorest states a rise in poverty since twenty sixteen rather than giving us the funding so we can design these technologies perfect and sell them locally nationally and internationally to china india the other major polluters on the planet i would as a u s senator would certainly lobby for that kind of thing to britain those jobs here in vermont we've been adapting now what percent of manmade activity is causing it to warm up quicker i don't know that percent but i do know that the percent of manmade pollution is one hundred percent so the areas of air water dirt and food we need to get straight on that and as far as our young people we need to encourage them to take entrepreneurship and develop new things as far coming out as we need to continue our development of the scrubbers and continue going forward in the solar panels i mean i don't like them on the organic fields i'll tell you that much but on house tops barn tops over parking lots it make sense and in vermont as it gets warmer we're going to burn less could happen to us here oh one dumb thing is changing our clocks back to a colder hour in the spring to burn more fuel and the other thing well i think we're straying a little bit here is mr best when you go if you go to the beaches the west coast the beaches of the last forty years i shrank tremendously same on the east coast because the mountains out west you know the mountains in new zealand you the mountains which when the glaciers that disappear so you cannot argue i don't think in any way that the earth is not warm that's also collected by nasa another to shows the earth is warm second if you look at the carbon cow published by nasa it has spiked by two order magnitude hundred times just since the industrial rez revolution so you can draw your own conclusions but regardless of whether you believe the cause of that oscillation whatever the fact is the carbon count has gone up and the temperature is gone up there's no arguing those two points so so oceans don't heat up and let him in action is and i'll just thank you and so why would we not for the for our own children or grandchildren the generations to come do what we can control the current account since it sure seems to be related so yes i would do what we sold or panels there's a new technology up all those things we need to pursue thank you i do s supports it despite being so vocal against military spending the course is referring to the plan basing of f thirty five fighter jets at the south running to and from our national guard headquarters in south yes i do support the basing of f thirty five in south burlington whether we like it or not you need protection the states and upon all states to do their part they happen to be based here in vermont i know a number of the national guardsmen to fly there and they're all very much in favor of port as you know i mean i don't really like it all time hearing the noise and whatnot but we owe it to our country to do just that and nowadays with these new hypersonic missiles that are being developed by some countries including russia these things travel thousand miles an hour so there we need to have protection additionally we need to work harder to collaborate with other countries and start building bridges we can't have this us versus them mentality because someday some is going to push a button and all the in a having the responsibility of those kind of weapons and also i am definitely to the thirty five for the mont their national guard it's leading it's twenty first century technology my oldest son is in s air force i want my my children learning on the latest leading edge technology and i want to i would definitely bring it to the state of vermont thirty five all the towns that would be affected have opposed it and you know you're going against democracy so i know senator centers probably have more info  fence the next ten countries combined and that the department of defense is the only agency of government not to have gone through a thorough so that's issue number one issue number two is and let us be very c thirty five has been worked cade's the f thirty five the f thirty five is the plight of plane of choice of nato and the united states air force so the real question is not whether we're going to nd i think the evidence is pretty clear to answer perhaps question if we don't get the f thirty five minute you disagree with me but if we do not get the f thirty five it will be eight episodes leading blow to the national guard it mean the last of probably hundreds of jobs and an important part of our economy so it's not whether you are or against it in a sense it's here it's whether it is in vermont or whether it's in south carolina and i want to support the vermont national  to come to be in question is is where is the right location and i think the people of south and the community needs to be heard and you know b i think that you know the question is look not not whether or not we have the national defense is the most legitimate role of the federal government accordingly i medicare and medicaid business mazing amount of fraud corruption and waste that ought to be reduced when senator sanders talks about is having a great in the next ten countries combined i say that's wonderful because we have ten times as many enemies gunning for us as the next and country's primary responsibility responsibility the federal government is the and and protect everybody sitting in this room and every one of the three  look at their supply side there are other great ideas out there creating regional co ops cooperatives i believe that vermont could could volatility goes up to produce and then prices go down and stuck with debt and i believe i believe for a very long time that we need supply management and i'm happy to say that i think within the dairy need to be supported and the they're making a fraction of what the profit that they made ten years ago simply no can and also the other is just wastewater the there needs to be one standard for the lifeblood of vermont the good news is a missing amount of new technology that is going to be helping them and that is helping them order robotic milking artificial intelligence all of these new ideas that we need to help our armors to be educated about you know have the great brand comes to have fully been utilized the schools they come here for the scenic beauty of vermont and they come here for the food to a lesser extent and what to do to support our farmers because far is just part of who we are when you drive across the connecticut river and just people that really look and see what i we got commit and question organic or non organic we need to market organic farm vermont because that's what people think we are folks put eight hundred head of cattle on a few acres and they need to figure out how many acres back to that great aunts uncles i would definitely bring back the fed in order to bring back their markets locally were farm table for the restaurants across all fourteen counties i would definitely a long term low interest rate loans in order to upgrade their produce more milk and sell it locally reestablish the markets of all fourteen counties of vermont rather than selling just to the big money in the mid west i would love to bring vermont back here several shell industries that i feel better fit from realigning for the twenty first century and that is something i would definitely support i know what i enjoy being on the farm the closing statement i want to get this most important question in many people's minds it's been the topic concept but it also has to be fiscally responsible i feel so i think to move in steps in a number of different ways and i've heard their interests the most my advice i'm pretty knowledgeable on the topic first of all i think we can pursue baseline health care you know based on you see if you're sick you see a doctor that kind of thing i think that something is she she will today but we really need to talk the root of the problem that's the cost the cost is crazy you know number one we could bring in more nurses and more physicians assistants to cover more baseline treatment in the doctor's office and thereby lower costs that way number two liability laws you know a lot of companies are coming out there who threaten a billion dollar lawsuit and then sue for one hundred million well that we're the ones who pay that cost number three the f them a lot and they're great people they help are insured but they could be streamlined a lot as well as the number of instances where cost could be lower substantially by working more thoroughly with the f d a so yes don thank you very much of as a veteran i shouldn't have to travel over one hundred miles to go or to go up all the way to newport because my primary physician is is in that location got one of the best medical facilities up here new v m one of the best researched medical schools you've got dartmouth which is also in the top ten and yet we've got several hospitals in all fourteen counties across the state or mine that don't have access to specific leading edge medical technology because they are what they are too small they can't quite afford it i would love to be the u s senator in order to help bring many of the leading edge treatments seeing how my father just had his second new replacement done and we we had a close call on that one but he still he got the first ten year warranty out of his first one and let's see if we can make it last a little longer on this one i'm all about bringing back bringing the funding to bring leading edge treatments to all the facilities and not just basically based on a population they call history however that because it gave many of americans an opportunity to have health insurance now do i agree with the individual mandate i'm not so sure about that but it was a  way to fund it at that time do i support universal health care absolutely i think it's it's essential and i did read our revolution and standards actually denying coverage to people who had preexisting conditions and that is obviously a step forward but did not go far enough we ought to day and everybody should know this when we argue about health care despond tional system today enables us to spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation twice as much as our friends in canada and yet we have thirty million people uninsured and even more who are under insured and we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs medicare is a good program i would add benefits to it for seeing such as and and hearing aids it's a good strong program the american people was i would hillary clinton put forth the idea of expanding the funding to community health centers which are absolutely wonderful provide excellent care in our own communities we need to with what have we can make the most proposals in the world i can promise free tuition i can promise free health care i can promise the world but unless it has a realistic chance of passing it can be so thing that actually can go through in viet comp lis stuff i would look to expand to be one of the g o p things to attack now it's supported by a good healthy majority of people in our country or magazines that they have been dead wrong obamacare was was an want to see the best health care for everybody better than what billionaires have today how we going to want to have that by expanding the possibilities for people to choose we're going to have it by breaking down the doors and barriers that limit if you go across state lines to buy my insurance and every other american you know a funny thing happens when you have expanded competition the product quality service goes up goes up and the cost of it goes breakthroughs within two years every seventy three days we're going to double the medical knowledge the american possibilities the genome for america is great but it's not going to happen we handed government