2019-2021 Town Halls: on Principles & Values
Joe Biden:
The nation is not as divided as we make it out to be
Look, for four years, all that's been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all the news is the American people. I'm tired of talking about Trump.
I take issue with what everybody says about the division. The nation is not divided. You go out there and take a look and talk to people, you have fringes on both ends, but it's not nearly as divided as we make it out to be.
There's so many things that we agree on that we don't focus enough on. And that's because we don't just condemn the things that are so obviously wrong that everybody agrees on.
We have to be more decent and treat people with respect and just decency.
Source: CNN Presidential Town Hall 2021 with Biden & Anderson Cooper
Feb 16, 2021
Joe Biden:
Bring together a divided nation and a world in disarray
Q: What is your plan to build a bridge with voters from the opposing partyBIDEN: The next President is going to inherit two things, a divided nation and a world in disarray. I was roundly criticized during the primaries: I plan to unite the nation.
I'm running as a Democrat, but I'm going to be everyone's President. I'm not going to be a Democratic President. I'm going to be America's President. I have made my whole career based upon bringing people together and bringing the parties together.
I've been relatively good at doing that. COOPER
Q: Do you think it's still possible to reach across the aisle?
BIDEN: Yes, I do. A group of Republicans said they're prepared to work with Joe Biden if he's elected. It was recently published,
in "The Hill." I'm a Democrat, proud of it, but America's President.
Q: You think you can...
BIDEN: I'm confident I can. I'm confident that with President Trump out of the way, there are going to be Republicans who are ready to get things done.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 drive-in with Anderson Cooper
Sep 17, 2020
Joe Biden:
Trump could have saved 37,000 lives if he had shared info
Q: Could you see a scenario where you downplayed critical information so as not to cause panic?
BIDEN: Not at all. If he had just acted one month, one week earlier, he would have saved 37,000 lives. But he knew it. He knew it and did nothing. It is close to criminal.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 drive-in with Anderson Cooper
Sep 17, 2020
Joe Biden:
FactCheck: No, only 50% of recent presidents were Ivy league
Joe Biden claimed that he would be the "first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president," in the context of white privilege. Is that claim true?We checked, and no, it's not even close to true. Rasmussen College published "U.S.
Presidents with College Education: From Learners to Leaders," on 4/24/2013, including the following list. Of recent presidents, the list is split evenly into 8 Ivy Leaguers and 8 not:
- Donald Trump, U. Penn (Ivy League)
- Obama, Columbia & Harvard
(Ivy League)
- W. Bush, Yale & Harvard (Ivy League)
- Clinton, Yale (Ivy League)
- H. W. Bush, Yale (Ivy League)
- Reagan, Eureka College (not Ivy)
- Carter, US Naval Academy (not Ivy)
- Ford, Yale (Ivy League)
- Nixon, Whittier (not Ivy)
-
Johnson, Texas State (not Ivy)
- Kennedy, Harvard (Ivy League)
- Eisenhower, US Military Academy (not Ivy)
- Truman, U. Missouri (not Ivy)
- Roosevelt, Harvard (Ivy League)
- Hoover, Stanford (not Ivy)
- Coolidge, Amherst (not Ivy)
Source: OnTheIssues Fact-check on CNN Town Hall 2020
Sep 17, 2020
Pete Buttigieg:
Nobody this side of paradise can fix anything alone
And it can't just be one person. To me, the biggest lie this president ever told was when he took that stage at the inauguration and he said, I alone can fix it. I think nobody this side of paradise can fix anything alone. And that will
be at the heart of my determination to include the voices of those whose experience I cannot understand from my own life, like the black women who are so systemically harmed by the inequities in this country.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 with Don Lemon
Feb 24, 2020
Tom Steyer:
US is supposed to be value-driven leader of the world
The United States is supposed to be the value-driven leader of the world. We stand for freedom. We stand for democracy and justice and equality. And I think when we go out to the world we should be standing up for the things that we believe in.
That's what the whole idea of the United States is. So I'm never going to be complimenting people, unelected leaders, of countries who completely control without any form of democracy, justice, or equality. I think it's inappropriate.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 with Chris Cuomo
Feb 24, 2020
Joe Biden:
Won't promise to serve one term unless change in health
Anybody who starts off saying I'm only going to serve one term is already behind the eight ball, because then no one worries about what the hell is going to happen after that. If anything changed in my health making it incapable of
me to fully exert all the energy and mental acuity that was needed to be done, then I give you my word, I would not run again. It's totally legitimate to ask about age, because when I ran as a 29-year-old kid, the question was, was I old enough?
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 with Anderson Cooper
Feb 20, 2020
Joe Biden:
There's nothing beyond the capacity of the American people
Never--no, I mean it--never, ever, ever have we given the American people an even shot they've ever let the country down. Never, never, never. There's not a thing beyond our capacity, nothing, if we remember this is the
United States of America, we can do anything if we set our mind to it, and do it together, treat people decently, honorably, and fairly. There's nothing beyond our capacity.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 with Anderson Cooper
Feb 20, 2020
Cory Booker:
His faith taught love, so he fought his own homophobia
Q: In the 90's you wrote an article that detailed your journey to accept LGBTQ plus people as equals. It must have made people uncomfortable, can you talk about that?Booker: I wanted to push people to understand the absurdities of homophobia, and
became a campus activist on those issues, and so I wrote this article to challenge people about their homophobia. It started as a teenager that saw growing up, an environment that was hostile to my peers who my faith taught me to love no matter what.
Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Oct 10, 2019
Kamala Harris:
The power of a president's support will help LGBTQ youth
Q: How would your administration address the crisis of LGBTQ youth suicide? HARRIS: One of the most powerful tools in the hands of the president is that microphone she holds. The real strength of a leader is based not on who you beat down, it's
based on who you lift up. We have to create a safe place for those youth to go, where they can be in a peer- based place, where they can talk about how they are experiencing the world in a way that nurtures and strengthens them.
Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Oct 10, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Invest in mental health and build community
I think that search for belonging and the exclusion from belonging is something that can lead to substance use disorder and to suicide attempts.
And it's one of the reasons why we need to make sure we send a message culturally that this is a time for building a sense of, as well as investing specifically in resources for mental health.
Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Oct 10, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Religious freedom does not mean the right to hurt others
Religious liberty is an important principle in this country, and we honor that. It's also the case that any freedom that we honor in this country has limits when it comes to harming other people. We say that the right to free speech does not include the
right to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. A famous justice said my right to swing my fists ends where somebody else's nose begins. And the right to religious freedom ends where religion is being used as an excuse to harm other people.
Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Oct 10, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
Government should address income inequality, not support it
There is something fundamentally wrong when we have three families owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society. Something wrong when the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 92%. Something very wrong when
49% of all new income today is going to the top 1%. We should have a government that represents working families and not just the 1% and powerful corporations.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020: 5 candidates back-to-back
Apr 22, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
God does not have a political party
I believe strongly in the separation of church and state and I think anybody who steps into the public sphere needs to make it clear that they're here
to support people of any religion and people of no religion. God does not have a political party.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 22, 2019
Page last updated: Apr 07, 2021