Michael Bennet on Principles & Values Democratic Presidential Challenger; CO Senator

Moral obligation to beat Trump, but don't impeach

BENNET: We are four months away from the Iowa Caucuses. And I just want to make sure whatever we do doesn't end up with an acquittal by Mitch McConnell in the Senate, which it surely would. And then President Trump would be running saying that he had been acquitted by the United States Congress. I believe we have a moral obligation to beat Donald Trump. He has to be a single-term president. And we can't do anything that plays into his hands. We need to be smart about how we're running or we're going to give him a second term. We can't do it.

Secretary Julian CASTRO: Senator, I think that folks are making a mistake by not pursuing impeachment. The Mueller Report clearly details that he deserves it. And what's going to happen in the fall of 2020, if they don't impeach him, is that he's going to say, "You see? The Democrats didn't go after me on impeachment, and you know why? Because I didn't do anything wrong."

Jewish mother survived Holocaust in Warsaw Ghetto

Yes, Bennet's mother, Susanne Christine Klejman, was born in the Warsaw Ghetto (where Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany imprisoned Polish Jews during WWII), in 1938. Her parents survived and she emigrated to America in 1950.

Bennet's father, Douglas Bennet, is a Christian. Under Jewish religious law, anyone born to a Jewish mother is automatically Jewish, including those with Christian fathers. Michael Bennet married his wife via an Episcopal priest, and says he believes in God, but observes neither Jewish nor Christian religious rituals.

Socialist policies are like giving candy to voters

SANDERS: [Trump is trying] to throw 32 million people off their health care 83% of tax benefits go to the top 1%.

Q: [to Bennet]: You have said, "It's possible to write policy proposals that have no basis in reality. You might as well call them candy." Were you referring to any proposal in particular?

facing as a country is, 40 years of no economic growth for 90% of the American people; and we've got the worst income inequality that we've had in 100 years. Where I disagree is on his solution of Medicare for all. Health care is a right. We need to get to universal health care. I believe the way to do that is by finishing the work we started with ObamaCare and creating a public option. Bernie mentioned taxes that we would have to pay. Because of those taxes, Vermont rejected Medicare for all.

Improvement with each generation now at risk

Government no longer plans for the next generation

"We had become the land of flickering lights, in which the standard of success was not what we were doing for the next generation of Americans, or to enhance our role in the world, but instead whether we had kept government open for another few minutes."

Appointed for vacancy as "accidental Senator"

Continue investigations; see if public supports impeachment

Born in India, to diplomat & Jewish Holocaust survivor

Bennet's father ran the United States Agency for International Development under President Jimmy Carter, served as President and CEO of National Public Radio (1983-93), and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in the Clinton Administration (1993-95). His grandfather Douglas Bennet was an economic adviser in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. Bennet's mother is a retired elementary school librarian.

Family includes Mayflower descendants & Holocaust survivors

Most Democrats are not socialists and should say so

No particular religion nor congregation but believes in God

A: Bennet does not affiliate with a particular religion but says he believes in God.

Q: Where does Michael Bennet worship?

A: Bennet does not worship with a congregation. He and his wife were married by an Episcopal priest.

Q: What religion was Michael Bennet born into?

A: Bennet's father is a Christian and his mother is Jewish. "I was raised with two different heritages, one was Jewish and one was Christian," Bennet has said. "I am proud that both heritages are part of me, and I believe in God." His maternal grandparents and his mother escaped from Poland during the Holocaust.

COMMENTS: "I'm not concerned about that at all," Bennet said of discussing his Jewish history, "just because I think we've moved beyond that in our politics."

Raised in two different heritages, Jewish and Christian

Under Jewish doctrine, Judaism is passed down through the mother. Bennet is Jewish because his mother is. But even in Poland, the Klejmans were not observant, and he did not grow up practicing that religious tradition.

"I was raised with two different heritages, one was Jewish and one was Christian," Michael Bennet said. "I am proud that both heritages are part of me, and I believe in God."

Colorado voters typically have paid little attention to religion. Gov. Bill Ritter's Catholicism became an election issue only after he announced positions that Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput publicly condemned. In last year's primaries, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney swept Colorado, though his Mormon background raised concerns elsewhere.

Pragmatism and independent thinking at national level

Editor-in-Chief of The Yale Law Journal

Married with three school-age daughters

Voted YES on confirming of Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court.

"In the past month, many Senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy. It is simple: fidelity to the law. The task of a judge is not to make the law--it is to apply the law. And it is clear, I believe, that my record in two courts reflects my rigorous commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to its terms; interpreting statutes according to their terms and Congress's intent; and hewing faithfully to precedents established by the Supreme Court and my Circuit Court. In each case I have heard, I have applied the law to the facts at hand."

Question Trump on Emoluments clause.

Excerpts from Letter from 17 Senators to Trump Organization: The Trump Organization's continuing financial relationship with President Trump raises concerns about whether it is a pass-through for income that violates the Constitution's two Emoluments Clauses: Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 on foreign Emoluments; and Article II, Clause 7 on domestic Emoluments. Please answer the following questions to help Congress understand:

• When the Trump Organization receives income from a government agency, how is that income segregated & reported?
• How does the Trump Organization determine if income is derived from foreign governments?
• Trump promised to "donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the US Treasury." Has the Trump Organization created a mechanism to make such payments?
• What is the estimated value of the 38 Chinese trademarks recently awarded to the Trump Organization? And the reported 157 pending trademark applications in 36 countries?

Legal Analysis: (Cato Institute, "Emoluments Clause vs. Trump Empire," 11/29/16): The wording of the Emoluments clause points one way to resolution: Congress can give consent, as it did in the early years of the Republic to presents received by Ben Franklin. It can decide what it is willing to live with in the way of Trump conflicts. If it misjudges public opinion, it will pay a political price at the next election.

FOIA argument: (ACLU Center for Democracy, "FOIA Request," 1/19/17): We filed our first Freedom of Information Act request of the Trump Era, seeking documents relating President Trump's conflicts of interest relating to his business connections. When Trump took the oath of office, he didn't take the steps necessary to ensure that he and his family's business interests comply with the Constitution. Some have even argued that upon taking the oath of office, the new president is already violating the Emoluments Clause.