-You're very different from Donald Trump.
I think one distinction you draw is, again, you've even said
you want to meet him on a field of love
as opposed to a field of hate.
So that is a difference between you.
A similarity is neither of you have ever held political office.
And obviously, there is some hesitation by many voters
that that is an important thing that you lack.
What do you say to them?
-Well, the question is legitimate,
but I think my answer is significant as well.
First of all, the problem with the President
is not that he lacked experience.
The problem with the President is that he lacks ethics.
And he seems to lack a visceral taste for democracy.
He lacks a visceral respect for our democratic traditions.
I do not.
Now, as far as political experience is concerned,
and he could have surrounded himself
with very fine political experts had he chosen to.
Now, when you -- I have a lot of respect for political expertise,
but let's not kid ourselves.
Very experienced politicians led us into the war in Iraq.
Very experienced politicians led us into the war in Vietnam.
We need political vision now
as much as we need political expertise.
You could have the best car mechanic in the world,
but the best car mechanic doesn't necessarily know
what road you should take to San Antonio.
That's what I feel I bring.
And FDR said that the primary responsibility
and the primary role of the presidency, he said,
is not the administrative aspect.
That, he said, is secondary.
The primary role is moral leadership.
That is what we lack.
We lack a vision of where America is
and a vision of where America needs to go.
And that takes more than political expertise,
and I believe that the experience I do have
and the skill set I do have makes me the woman for that job.
-So you would be in this case GPS, basically.
[ Laughter ]
-But you know what? That is what the presidency is.
-Yeah, I can see that argument.
-That is what the president does.
The president doesn't sit there with a checkbook
and try to figure it all out.
-No, certainly not this one.
[ Laughter ]
You received some criticism for a couple comments,
comments that you have walked back and said were misstated
and that people would say were maybe anti-science.
You came out, you made a comment against antidepressants.
You made a comment that many saw as anti-vaxx.
Did you -- Were those mis-- Did you misspeak
or have your opinions on those things evolved?
-No, they've been inaccurately described, as you just did.
I never made a comment anti-antidepressants.
I've never said anything anti-science.
I've never said anything anti-medicine.
I've actually never said anything anti-vaccines.
What I have said, the first thing I said,
and I did misspeak.
I was at an art gallery in New Hampshire,
and the comment was about mandatory vaccines.
And I spent most of my adult life in California.
There's been a lot of conversation
about religious exemptions, personal exemptions,
and I said something that I am sorry that I said.
I said they sound -- it sounds Orwellian or Draconian to me.
I should not have said that, and I am sorry.
That was not an anti-vaxx statement.
Now, about antidepressants --
painkillers, for instance, have a role but we now know.
We have attorney generals all over this country
who are right now indicting
big pharmaceutical company executives
for predatory behavior,
where we absolutely know now they knowingly overprescribed,
over-manufactured, and over-marketed opioids,
and that's how so much that has contributed
to the opioid crisis.
Now, just like painkillers certainly have a role,
I'm sure antidepressants
clearly have a role in some people's lives.
But we're living at a time where the spectrum
of normal human despair is so often treated
or at least the conversation is there about meds
that I do question.
If somebody had a divorce or a heartbreak or someone died
or a professional failure or a bankruptcy,
this is painful, but it's not a mental illness.
And these drugs are mainly addictive,
and I am not the only person in mainstream America
to be questioning the over-prescription of --
that there is at least as much question
about over-prescription as about under-prescription.
I'm not wandering into mental illness, bipolar, schizophrenia.
That's not my lane, but normal human despair
is the lane of someone
who does the kind of work that I have done.
-Well, thank you so much for explaining that.
I want to say you've not yet qualified for September debates.
Are you confident that you will?
-Well, anybody can go to marianne2020.com.
[ Laughter ]
I need about 6,000 more of the donors,
first-time donors, before August 28th,
and we're certainly on track to get that,
and I also need 2% of 4 national polls.
So we'll see.
We'll probably know something in the next few days.
-Alright. Well, thank you so much for making the time.
-Thank you. -Best of luck.
I really appreciate speaking to you.
Marianne Williamson, everybody.