Marianne Williamson in Interviews during 2018-2020
On Education:
Educational funding should not come from property taxes
Williamson said, "When I lived in Michigan and my daughter attended Grosse Pointe South, there were people who lived in Detroit who would rent apartments -- so that their children, even though they came from Detroit, could go to
Grosse Pointe South, which was a better high school than the one in their neighborhood." . Williamson said that experience is part of what drives her 2020 stance that educational funding should not come from property taxes.
Source: Detroit Free Press on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 23, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Requested that her donors support Mike Gravel
Author and 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson's campaign used a fundraising email to help one of her primary opponents garner enough donors to qualify for the next round of debates. Williamson's campaign email asked recipients to support
former Sen. Mike Gravel, who is roughly 10,000 individual donors short of the threshold to qualify for the next round of Democratic debates."You may not have heard of him because he hasn't yet qualified for any debates," the email reads, referring to
Gravel. "But his voice is important."
The email, signed by Williamson, touts Gravel's body of work in Congress and "diverse and provocative" voice as reasons he should be on the debate stage next to her. "Thanks to you, I'm on the debate stage.
I'm using this platform, granted to me by you, to ask for your help," and asks donors to consider giving Gravel a dollar to increase his individual donor count.
[Gravel made the donor count but did not make the cut for the 20 slots in the July debate].
Source: The Hill e-zine on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 7, 2019
On Health Care:
I support vaccines, but I understand the skepticism
After a request for comment [about her Tweet that vaccine mandates were "draconian" & "Orwellian"], Williamson acknowledged making the remarks and said she misspoke."I understand that many vaccines are important and save lives,"
Williamson said. "I also understand some of the skepticism that abounds today about drugs which are rushed to market by Big Pharma. I am sorry that I made comments which sounded as though I question the validity of life-saving vaccines.
That is not my feeling and I realize that I misspoke."
When asked about her stance on religious and personal belief exemptions for vaccinations, Williamson replied through a spokeswoman: "I support vaccines. Public safety must be carefully balanced
with the right of individuals to make their own decisions."
Williamson has a history of skeptical comments about vaccinations. President Trump has previously proudly embraced the disproved theory that vaccines cause autism.
Source: Los Angeles Times on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 19, 2019
On Health Care:
Vaccination should be a choice, like abortion choice
Marianne Williamson leans in to vaccine skepticism in NH: "To me, it's no different than the abortion debate. The US government doesn't tell any citizen, in my book, what they have to do with their body or their child."
[She added an additional tweet that] vaccine mandates are too "draconian" & "Orwellian" [but later rescinded those terms].
Source: Twitter posting in 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 19, 2019
On Corporations:
Repeal corporate tax cuts
ECONOMY/TRADE: Increase minimum wage by region, repeal corporate tax cuts in 2017 tax law.Williamson has put forward a four-step plan to reduce income inequality. It includes providing cash relief through a universal basic income; creating jobs
through Green New Deal legislation; boosting government funding for early education and caregiving; and introducing a universal savings program. Williamson has proposed paying for the plan by rolling back tax cuts to the wealthy and big businesses.
Source: PBS News Hour 2019 coverage of 2020 Democratic primary
May 13, 2019
On Families & Children:
Provide free or affordable lunches & breakfasts for students
EDUCATION: Free higher education, universal preschool, reduce (or forgive) college loan debt. Williamson is in favor of universal preschool, and believes in increasing funding to provide free or affordable lunches and breakfasts for students.
She supports making reforms to standardized testing, and boosting teacher training and education infrastructure.
The author also believes in free college or technical school tuition, and investing in trade schools.
Source: PBS News Hour 2019 coverage of 2020 Democratic primary
May 13, 2019
On Education:
Provide teachers autonomy as well as compensation
Another Democratic presidential hopeful, author Marianne Williamson, wrote on her campaign website that she would work to
provide teachers "autonomy as well as compensation that reflects their professional stature," but didn't provide specifics on how to cover salary increases.
Source: PBS News Hour 2019 coverage of 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 15, 2019
On Abortion:
Abortion is about private morality; government has no role
I believe that abortion is a moral issue, but I believe that it is an issue of private morality. I believe that it is an issue of private rather than public morality. The government should have nothing to do with our private morals.
And therefore, I do not believe the government should have anything to do with a decision a woman is making for her body, anything that she does or does not do.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Reparations are an appropriate response to country's history
I don't believe that the average American is a racist. I do believe that the average American is vastly undereducated about the history of race in the United States. Remember, that two-and-a-half centuries of slavery was followed by a hundred years of
what today we would call domestic terrorism. What do you call lynchings if not domestic terrorism? This country will not heal until we take a serious moral inventory. Racism is a character defect. Whatever it costs, it's time to do this.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Attacks on gay rights is attack on us all
I want you to know why I would support you as a LGBTQ person. I would support you because you're an American. I don't want to just talk to you as a lesbian or as an LGBTQ. I don't want to talk to somebody else because you're black, you're white, you're
gay, you're straight, you're a Jew, you're Christian, you're Muslim. I want to talk to you because you're an American. Martin Luther King said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. What you do to a lesbian, you do to me. Stop right there.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Education:
Wipe out college loans burdening the young
You can't be all that you can be when you're so weighed down. How am I going to pay these college loans? This is where our economic good comes from. Economic good does not come from a few major corporate moguls who just drop some
crumbs off the table when they're in the mood to. Our economic good comes from the fact that each and every one of us are able to actualize the extraordinary, unlimited, God-given potential. That's why I want to take these college loan debts away.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Climate change biggest crisis of our time
On climate change: It is the greatest moral challenge of our age. We need carbon sequestration. We need the reforestation. We need to develop sustainable energy systems. We need new modes of electric transportation, et cetera.
Enough with these incremental changes here and these incremental changes there. The climate is a crisis. We have 12 years to deal with it.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Environment:
Deal with factory farming by having environmentalists at EPA
We would have, if I were president of the United States, a world-class environmentalist at the head of the EPA. No more chemical company executives heading the EPA. No more oil company heading the EPA.
We need to deal with the animal factory farming. Enough with these incremental changes here and these incremental changes there.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Families & Children:
Need a cabinet department to focus on children and youth
We have millions of American children who go to school every day in schools that do not even have the adequate school supplies with which to teach 8-year-old to read. If they can't read, the chances of high school graduation, it's drastically
diminished, and the chances of incarceration is drastically increased. We should rescue these children, no differently than we would rescue them from a natural disaster. We need a United States cabinet-level Department of Children and Youth.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Support Israeli security & Palestinian human rights
I believe that the United States must have an absolute simultaneous and equal support of the legitimate security concerns of Israel and the human rights and dignities and economic opportunities of the Palestinian people.
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority will know that you say is going to sway me from my commitment to the legitimate security of
Israel, and Israeli leaders similarly will know nothing is going to sway me from my commitment to the human rights and the dignity of the Palestinian people.
It's been since Jimmy Carter that we've had a U.S. president to say flat out those settlements are illegal. In me, you would have a president who says those settlements are illegal.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Return moral principles to our foreign policy
I want the moral leadership of our State Department back. When you're willing to -- for the sake of a $100 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, go along with support for a genocidal war that we know has starved tens of thousands of Yemenis, when
Mike Pompeo says, "well, sometimes you can have strategic partnerships with people who do not share your values," no, you can't. It means you have sacrificed your values. I want the moral principles that should be central to American foreign policy back.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Government Reform:
DC should have representation in Congress
In terms of D.C., of course, you should have representation. I think when the founders said that D.C. should not have representation, they simply did not foresee a time when the kind of population in
D.C. would exist as it does now. Absolutely D.C. should have representation.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Government Reform:
Must address election security & Russian interference
Contrary to the way this president behaves, I would actually listen to the U.S. intelligence agencies. The U.S. intelligence agencies have an uncommon uniformity on this issue. They're very clear that there has been Russian interference. I will make it
clear to the American people, number one, that I agree with our intelligence agencies that this is happening and, number two, that we're on it. In terms of the voting machines, we must have paper ballots. We absolutely must have paper ballots.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Gun Control:
Gun laws are driven by profits of gun manufacturers
In terms of guns, I certainly understand that it's a Second Amendment right. And we know that our gun policies in the United States are not driven by Second Amendment. That's just an illusion. We don't have commonsense gun safety legislation because,
God forbid, it should cut into the short-term profits of gun manufacturers. That is immoral. The majority of the American people want universal background checks. The majority of the American people want to outlaw bump stocks. The majority of the
American people want to get these military assault rifles out of the hands of the average citizen. And until the American people realize that we need to get rid of the nefarious influence of money on our political system, if you want commonsense
gun safety legislation, you're going to not only have to vote for a president who stands for that, you're going to have to vote for congresspeople who stand for that and senators who stand for that. This issue is in your hands, not just mine.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Health Care:
Make Medicare for All a public option
I'd like to see a Medicare-for-All type of plan that's presented as a public option. I think a lot of people would gravitate to that. In addition, if people want private insurance, if they like their private insurers, or want to augment it, then they
should be able to. The issue is why are we going to do that. The reason we are going to do that is because you are a citizen of the United States. No citizen in the richest country of the world should have to be worrying about this.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Immigration:
Need to examine how US policy created border crisis
[Regarding the Mexican border]: The real crisis is not just that so many people are coming over the border. The real crisis is the human despair and desperation that has led them to take their children on their backs over hundreds
and even thousands of miles of desert. Nobody does this because things are going well.
We need to look deeply at American foreign policy in Latin America and how we have contributed to situations where there was level of despair because too often in our foreign policy,
just like in our domestic, our government has done more to be supporting short-term profits for major corporate interests than people.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
On Abortion:
Calls herself 100% pro-choice
Williamson has affirmed her support for abortion,
calling herself "one hundred percent pro-choice."
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Mar 5, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Reparations to be distributed over 10 years by black leaders
Her signature campaign promise is a call for $100 billion in reparations for black Americans.
This would be distributed over 10 years by a group of black leaders for selected "economic and education projects."
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Mar 5, 2019
On Education:
Free college; low cost education for older adults
Williamson would advocate for legislation that supports free college education and
low-cost education for middle or older aged citizens.
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Mar 5, 2019
On Gun Control:
Universal background checks including at gun shows
As president, she would support the elimination of the sale of semi-automatic firearms.
She would fight to ban bump stocks and require universal background checks, including at gun shows.
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Mar 5, 2019
On Immigration:
Pathway and affordable healthcare for illegal immigrants
She believes that there should be a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants with no "serious criminal background."
She has also said that she would work on providing affordable healthcare to illegal families.
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Mar 5, 2019
On Jobs:
Supports $15 minimum wage & Green New Deal
Economy: Williamson supports the institution of a $15 minimum wage. She also supports the
Green New Deal, an economic stimulus bill that calls for radical environmental and economic policies.
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Mar 5, 2019
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021