okay thank you all very much for being
here let me begin by reiterating what I
have said from day one of this campaign
and that is that Donald Trump is the
most dangerous president in the modern
history of our country and he must be
defeated tragically we have a president
today who is a pathological liar and it
was running a corrupt administration he
clearly does not understand the
Constitution of the United States and
thinks that he is a president who is
above the law in my view he is a racist
a sexist a homophobe a xenophobe and a
religious bigot and he must be defeated
and I will do everything in my power to
make that happen
last night obviously was not a good
night for our campaign from a delegate
point of view we lost in the largest
state up for grabs yesterday the state
of Michigan we lost in Mississippi
Missouri and Idaho on the other hand we
won in North Dakota and we lead the vote
count in the state of Washington the
second largest state contested yesterday
with 67% of the votes
having been counted we are a few
thousand votes on top what became even
more apparent yesterday is that while we
are currently losing the delegate count
approximately 800 delegates for Joe
Biden and 660 for us we are strongly
winning in two enormous ly important
areas which will determine the future of
our country poll after poll including
exit polls show that a strong majority
of the American people support our
progress
of agenda the American people are deeply
concerned about the grotesque level of
income and wealth inequality in this
country and the American people want the
wealthy and large profitable
corporations to start paying their fair
share of taxes overwhelming support for
that the American people understand that
the federal minimum wage of 725 an hour
is a starvation wage they want to raise
the minimum wage in this country to a
living wage of at least $15 an hour and
the American people understand that if
our kids are going to make it into the
middle class of this country we must
make public colleges and universities
and trade schools tuition free the
American people understand that we
cannot continue a cruel and
dysfunctional healthcare system and it
is amazing to me to see that even in
conservative states like Mississippi
there is an overwhelming understanding
that we are now spending twice as much
per capita on health care as through the
people of any other country while 87
million of us remain uninsured or
underinsured and this crisis this absurd
health care system is becoming more and
more obvious to the American people as
we face the challenge of the corona
virus pandemic that we are currently
experiencing imagine facing a pandemic
and having 87 million people who are
having a difficult time going to a
doctor when they need and the American
people know unlike Donald Trump that
climate change is an existential threat
to our country in the planet and that we
need to transform our energy system away
from fossil fuel to energy efficiency
and sustainable energy and the American
people also know that we need
fundamental transformation of a broken
and racist criminal justice system
as well as a cruel immigration system
that keeps millions of people living in
fear but it is not just the ideological
debate that our progressive movement is
winning we are winning the generational
debate while Joe Biden continues to do
very well with older Americans
especially those people over 65 our
campaign continues to win the vast
majority of the votes of younger people
and I am talking about people not just
in their 20s but in their 30s and their
40s the younger generations of this
country continue in very strong numbers
to support our campaign today I say to
the Democratic establishment in order to
win in the future you need to win the
voters who represent the future of our
country and you must speak to the issues
of concern to them you cannot simply be
satisfied by winning the votes of people
who are older while our campaign has won
the ideological debate we are losing the
debate over electability I cannot tell
you how many people our campaign has
spoken to who have said and I quote I
like what your campaign stands for I
agree with what your campaign stands for
but I'm gonna vote for Joe Biden because
I think Joe is the best candidate to
defeat Donald Trump end of quote we have
heard that statement all over this
country needless to say I strongly
disagree with that assertion
but that is what millions of Democrats
and independents today believe on Sunday
are very much
look forward to the debate in Arizona
with my friend Joe Biden and let me be
very frank as to the questions that I
will be asking Joe Joe what are you
gonna do for the 500,000 people who go
bankrupt in our country because of
medically related debt and what are you
going to do for the working people of
this country and small businesspeople
who are paying on average 20 percent of
their incomes for health care Joe what
are you going to do to end the absurdity
of the United States of America being
the only major country on earth where
health care is not a human right are you
really going to veto a medicare-for-all
bill if it is passed in Congress Joe how
are you going to respond to the
scientists who tell us we have seven or
eight years remaining to transform our
energy system before irreparable harm
takes place to this planet because of
the ravages of climate change Joe at a
time when most young people need a
higher education to make it into the
middle class what are you going to do to
make sure that all of our people can go
to college or trade school regardless of
their income and what are you gonna do
about the millions of people who are
struggling with outrageous levels of
student debt Joe at a time when we have
more people in jail than Communist China
a nation four times our size what are
you going to do to end mass
incarceration and a racist criminal
justice system and what are you going to
do to end the terror that millions of
undocumented people experience right now
because of our broken and inhumane
immigration system Joe what are you
going to do about the fact that we have
the highest rate of childhood poverty
of almost any major country on earth and
are living with the fact that 500,000
people tonight are homeless and 18
million families are spending half of
their income to put a roof over their
heads so importantly what are you going
to do to end the absurdity of
billionaires buying elections and the
three wealthiest people in America
owning more wealth than the bottom half
of our people so let me conclude the way
I began Donald Trump must be defeated
and I will do everything in my power to
make that happens on Sunday night in the
first one-on-one debate of this campaign
the American people will have the
opportunity to see which candidate is
best positioned to accomplish that goal
thank you all very much