Civil rights, social justice, and economic justice are at the center of this campaign for President as it rightfully should be. Not a secondary issue, not a footnote.
When candidates talk about immigration, it is a social justice and civil rights issue. When candidates talk about income inequality and mass incarceration, voting rights, it is a social and economic justice issue.
When candidates talk about trade and education, it's a social and economic justice issue.
For people of color, income inequality was a reality before the Great Recession.
For people of color, the wealth gap was a stark reality even before the Great Recession.
What the Great Recession did is exacerbate a very serious, long-standing American problem.
So what we're going to want to talk to you a little bit about is what specifically and how does closing the racial dimension of the income and wealth gap fit into your program.
I want to thank all of you, not only for being here today, but for the work that I think all of you have done for your entire lives.
You are fighting for racial justice, you're fighting for economic justice, you're fighting for social justice.
You're fighting to make this country become the country that we know that it can be, that it should be.
You have raised profound issues without exception, every person here. I look forward to the ensuing discussion.
Number one. To my mind, it is absolutely incomprehensible that we have Republicans in the United States Senate, and I come from the Senate, who refuse to honor the Constitution of the United States.
Now, I get a little bit tired of hearing my Republican colleagues talk about the Constitution, their love of the Constitution.
Now, we've got a lot of good lawyers here and correct me if I'm wrong. But the Constitution is pretty clear that the President of the United States nominate individuals to the United States Supreme Court.
Not a whole lot of ambiguity in that, is there?
No.
Original intent.
[laughs]
And to my mind, the idea that Republican obstructionism unprecedented in American history in terms of what we've seen in the last 7 years continues on this important issue is incomprehensible to me.
And I will do everything that I can to support the President's nominee. Hopefully that nominee's name will be brought forth within the next short period of time and I have confidence that it will be a strong nominee.
Number two. You have raised issues of economics. We understand that since the Wall Street crash of 2007-2008, millions of people have lost their jobs, their life savings, their homes.
I understand that the African American community has been harder hit than any other community in America.
I understand that it is unacceptable that 35% of Black children in America are living in poverty. This is the United States of America.
I understand because I was talking just the other day to folks from Flint, Michigan. It was one of the most difficult and painful conversations I have ever had in my life.
And I've had many of them.
To understand what is happening in Flint in the United States of America in the year 2016 is literally, it's literally hard to believe the suffering that is going on there.
Talking to mothers who are seeing the intellectual capabilities of their children deteriorate in front of their eyes. Can one imagine that?
Okay, in terms of voter rights, all of you know better than the vast majority of American people the struggles we have had in this country.
The fight for basic voting rights, the demonstrations, the lynchings, the beatings in order for African Americans to achieve what one assumes all Americans should have, the right to vote.
And the idea that we have Governors and legislatures in this country working over time, right now, trying to figure out how they could suppress the vote.
How they can make it harder for people who might vote against them, to participate in the democratic political process is, to me, vulgar.
Let me say this because this, to me, is something I take personally. I have run for office in the state of Vermont on many occasions. I have lost and I have won.
It has never in my political career ever occurred to me for one second to say, "Oh, there's a town over there that really is not sympathetic to me. How do I figure out how I can suppress the vote in that town?"
Never occurred to me and what I say, if you've got Republican Governors and legislators who are afraid of free and fair elections, you know what?
Get out of politics, get another job. America is about the right of the people to vote and we have got to figure out, and I'd like your ideas on this, different ideas out there.
But at the end of the day in this country, we should be doing what other countries around the world do.
And that is to say if you are eighteen years of age, you are an American citizen, you know what? You've got the right to vote. End of discussion.
You've raised so many good issues and I look forward to the ensuing conversation so thank you all very much.