 and go ahead you have 90 seconds for your opening statement first of all I really want to say that I'm truly sorry about the losses of life that we have in Pennsylvania my brother who is a retired U.S. Army he lives in Germany my nieces and nephews they are half Nigerian steam for all of us my name is for Lashadeh Adeluola I am running because I am an activist and I'm not really a politician I enjoy being an activist because I have my freedom I'm not be holding to anyone or any party if I like you if you do something whether you are Democrat or Republican I'll applaud you and when I don't like what you do I'll go after anyone whether you are the president of United States or whomever you are so I'm really glad to have these wonderful opportunities thank you thank you and then next up we have Russell best and into Russell bestie that is an independent from Burlington oh thank you yeah bestie like I'm your bestie my name is Russell bestie I'm running as for U.S. Senate I'm running as an independent because I believe very much on fighting for issues not size I think one of the biggest problems we have today is people pick a side and then it ends all conversations so I really focus on issues all the time I'm also self funded I haven't accepted a dime from anybody so everything's right in my own pocket I'm up to about $1500 right now and you don't really need to spend a lot of money I don't feel in elections I mean everything's free the internet's free Facebook's free YouTube's free I'm using all these linkedin's free I'm using all these free services put my name out there and then no one can buy my vote I'm free and I only work for you the individual voter because no one's giving me money so I have no favors I'm dad to three kids I live in Burlington I work in the biotechnology field for about gosh 30 some years or so recognized world leader in that industry very active in that I work up in St. Albans right now been there for 14 years working so quite a while I'm also working very hard to bring jobs to Vermont that's one of the reasons I'm running actually is because I've watched so many kids I've coached a lot of teams soccer teams soccer basketball teams all these different sports cup scouts and everyone's leaving they're not coming back that's wrong we've got Vermont it's the prettiest place in the world we don't need to pay people to come here create jobs and I mean well-paying clean jobs and we'll all be able to live much more happily and for generations to come we can build the Vermont we used to have and can have again thank you very much thank you next up we have Bruce Bousa and independent from Reedsboro thank you all thanks for having us and I got my motto is hey can't we just get along you know I'm not you you're not me I do things you probably don't do and you probably do a few things I don't do but we're neighbors and we all be able to get along and that's what the Vermont I come to a custom of is like and I found that in the United States Constitution it's called to ensure the domestic tranquility and really also I see coming out of Washington these days is to stir the domestic turmoil and that includes even our own senator that's representing us down there looking for a revolution we had a revolution 242 years ago in this country and what we got now is the United States Constitution which tells me what I can do a bill of rights which tells me what I've got to keep my hands off of and a declaration of independence it tells me why because those rights are endowed to us by our creator and that's not me so the reason for government is to protect those rights the rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and to order a more perfect union so to do things in Washington that'll bring us together instead of dividing us to establish justice we got to be honest we see miss unjustices occurring in our country well I'd be willing to work on that does that mean means you're almost up one more sentence okay beside the rest of the beginning of the our Constitution the other thing I want to do is avoid a civil war I do believe we're heading that way if we don't straighten things out and the Constitution is how I would remedy that thank you thank you next up we have Edward Gilbert and independent from Berrytown thank you everybody for showing up and having us this evening my name is Edward Gilbert I'm a native born from honor from Berrytown Berrytown elementary school a graduate of Spalding High School and like many I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do after after high school so I went off into the US Naval submarine service I served on two fast attack nuclear submarines I was US Navy diver I came back to Vermont put myself through UVM I was recruited to fidelity investments where we designed Roth IRA evaluator we broke a company record generating over 200 billion dollars under a year after leaving fidelity I went to another small startup company Burlington mass called genetic micro systems where we designed DNA microarray technologies we were bought up by affimetrics that little technology has certainly impacted many industries across the medical fields as well as business and I went back into the US Army 3rd and 124th IO battalion after 911 in order to teach counterterrorism at Norwich University of building 2001 I'm presently starting or attempting to start a high-tech business model myself here in this little state because I would love to like Russell said one job good benefits employing Vermonters designing leading-edge technology thank you thank you and I was not sufficiently clear at the start but when I raised my hand that means I've got ten no you're fine you've got 10 seconds remaining when I raised my hand okay thank you thank you and next up we've got Brad Peacock an independent from Shaftsbury thank you very much thank you for having me wow I'm quite a bit nervous but this is my first foray into politics a little nerve-racking sitting next to Senator Sanders here but the reason why I got into this was I didn't see a lot of people like myself a lot of working-class people who represent us you know I'm a farmer I'm lucky if I make about thirty two thousand dollars this year and it's it's a great life I love it but I'm not sure that I can make it happen for much longer health insurance is going crazy our deductible is just insane I have to have thousands of dollars in the bank I already have thousands of dollars in student loan debt thousands of dollars in medical bills because I had a chronic sinus infection and how to go to the hospital that it worries me it for the people of this state I was born and raised here I love it here and I'd love to stay I'm the only one of four kids that has been able to stay and I'm looking to make it a little bit more affordable thank you and next up we have Senator Bernie Sanders an independent from Burlington thank you and let me thank Channel 17 for sponsoring this event everybody for being here and all of these fellow Vermonters who are up here making their points public I want to thank many of the organizations in the state of Vermont the FL CIO and virtually all of the trade unions for their support I want to thank Planned Parenthood for their support and can hope to continue working with them to protect women's rights I want to thank the Sierra Club for their support because there is no issue to my mind globally more important than protecting our planet from climate change a Brad and others have raised some of the important issues that we're working on and I am very proud to be a leader in the United States Senate in saying that health care is a right not a privilege and my legislation which calls for Medicare for all now has the support of a significant majority of the American people and more and more people in Congress I introduced legislation which said essentially that in America if somebody works 40 hours a week that person should not be living in poverty and that we have to raise the minimum wage to a living wage which in my view is $15 an hour and that also means that we have to end the absurdity of women earning 80 cents on the dollar compared to men we've also been very active in education in the fight to make public colleges and universities tuition free and to demand the wealthiest people in this country stop paying their fair share of taxes thank you thank you and except we've got John Svetovsky and independent from breadport good evening thank you also for doing this I appreciate channel 17 I've been a social worker for over 40 years I was the founder of the brollington emergency shelter back in 1982 we successfully helped 80% of those who came to us on their feet with an average length of stay less than three weeks use the brollington shelter as a model to start shelters in St. Albans very Camden main and another shelter the good neighbor downtown brollington for long term hardcore addicts I've never run for office before the events of the last few years have motivated me to get involved I've been a Democrat for an activist for over 50 years the issues of homelessness and opiate addiction are very important to me my son wrestled with a heroin addiction for 13 years I'm pleased to say that he's been clean for a year and a half there are many issues that are very important to me climate change is one of them women's rights are very important the agriculture farmers in the state are held to one standard while towns are held to another farmer can lose his permit to operate while town when it rains dumps a ton of wastewater into the lake and that needs to be rectified looking to help create more housing for the disabled and health care is very important I'm a big fan of Obamacare I would vote for impeachment listen to the as well the house would vote but I would say that there's no doubt that they need that and I would be very interested in that child thank you thank you finally we have the only member of a political party here tonight Mr. Lawrence Zupan a Republican from Manchester go ahead sir thank you ball and thank you everybody for being here thank you to channel 17 and from my colleagues up here on the stage my name is Lauren Zupan I've been a student of economics politics and history since I was a child my greatest education though has been after graduating from college and running a nonprofit educational organization going back to school my MBA and opening several small businesses of my own I've had the privilege of working with three different presidential offices including Reagan Bush and Clinton it gave me much insight into the workings rather than his own personal and political presidential aspirations and desire to spread socialist ideas all around our great country secondly I'm running to remind us of reinforce and reinvigorate the trod and true pathways to individual and societal greatness which have always made our country the envy of the whole world and I wish to promote those ideas and this Vermont spirit of can-do independence which has formed the backbone of our state we have many challenges were threshold of a golden era of Vermont Renaissance and no doubt in these two hours I have a chance to tell you more about what I mean thank you very much thank you as Fola alluded to in her opening remarks in the past week this country's face to horrific acts of terror a shooting rampage at Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 and a bombing campaign that targeted a dozen Democrats and media organizations while we may never truly understand what motivated the perpetrators to commit these acts many Americans have linked them to a course in the political rhetoric in the United States I'd like to start this forum by asking each of you to engage in an active civility in 30 seconds please tell us one specific positive thing that you've learned about or already knew about one of your opponents in this race so I'm gonna start me going the opposite order this time so we'll start with Mr. Zupan any other candidates fair game got 30 seconds to tell us something positive about them this gentleman seated right to my left has dedicated his life to helping people it's touched my heart to see that and it's wonderful what he's done I also have something positive to say about senator Sanders I believe he has a noble impulse when he considers the needs of Vermonters and Americans when he considers their health care needs their educational needs and their economic needs where I differ though we leave it we'll leave it the positive for now we'll get back to that more about thank you Mr. Sotowski go ahead I want to say a couple things one about Brad really enjoyed listening to him at a forum and when don't be shared from his life and very sincere and he's been through a lot and fighting me and I want to say to my friend on the end how kind she was when when I bumped into her secretary of state's office when we were filing our petitions and we have a deep admiration for Hillary Clinton in common and are both liberal Democrats at heart senator Sanders well being up here listening to what people are saying should make everybody here very proud to be a Vermont are people who are serious people who want to improve life in this country in the state and we have heard people who work tirelessly to improve lives whether it's a homeless shelter whether it's an organic farm or it's people starting jobs so as I look from left to right here I think this is an evening that we should take a bit of pride in thank you I had the the privilege of meeting Bruce we met up one night and I thought well I'm much in common but you know I'll go and talk and then all of a sudden it was dark so we had a great conversation and I really really appreciate meeting and talking in person it's face-to-face communication it's the reconnection that we need in this country thank you Mr. Gilbert yes it was a pleasure meeting all of the eight candidates that showed up this evening I had the opportunity to finally meet Brad face-to-face Bruce Boussa Russell Russell I met and an independent living seniors meeting of course I know Senator Bernie Sanders rather well I don't know if he even remembers me back when I first met him in 92 but he's a what we're gonna oppose when it comes to socialism that's one thing I being well let's let's again leave it at that let's keep it positive for me meeting warrants as you pay in and this was the first time I've had the opportunity to meet one so I it's a pleasure meeting Mr. Boussa go ahead I have to agree with what Brad said we had a good meeting that day and I think the reason we got together was we were both concerned about the loss of being able to debate each other and still walk away neighbors and friends and be able to communicate and we were both concerned about the loss of the ability to communicate between people and that's basically why we got together so we could see that we had different views of things but we were still neighbors and we're still Vermonters and that we could still go on to be be friendly with each other and actually become friends so that's it thank you Mr. best I'd like to bestie I'd like to thank Senator Senator Sanders of course because he's really paved the way for a lot of us Vermonters many years ago and making a difference I appreciate that and Mr. Boussa next to me we don't agree on everything but we do believe in the Constitution and I love our Constitution the fact that you can amend your Constitution too by two thirds with majorities so there's not a lot of opportunities there thank you very much really thankful to be on the stage and I want everybody to know that I really respect Senator Bernie Sanders we shared the same birthday I supported him in 2012 and I really do respect everyone on this stage we are fighting the same fight to walk and serve this nation and I'm truly thankful to all the Vermonters who without knowing me you know listening to my funny accent for me in the primary from my heart I'm truly very grateful thank you very much we're gonna stick with this topic for just another couple of minutes here this is actually a question from an audience member what is the cause of this renewed surge in political violence and what role do our political leaders play and what responsibility do they have for these terrible events for this question I'm gonna give you each 60 seconds and then why don't we start with Mr. Peacock and then we'll move this way and then back around okay so go ahead Mr. Peacock so as I understand it what role do politicians have yeah yeah I'll read the question one more time what's the cause of this renewed surge in political violence and what role do our political leaders play what responsibility do they have for these terrible events and yeah go ahead it's the extreme divisive rhetoric that's coming from from both sides really from from many different sides you know part of why I ran is because this erosion of respect and decency and that is from the top down so the very the most sacred office in our land of the president in the United States constantly tweeting and demeaning people and dehumanizing people is is aberrant and it it needs to stop but it needs to stop on both sides so you know you can't say well we're just gonna fight fire with fire no you someone needs to stand up and say enough thank you senator Sanders thank you this is a very important question and I think we start off with the fact that today we have a whole lot of people in this country who are suffering with mental illness we have hundred million plus guns floating around and what we have seen in years past before Trump are terrible terrible shootings of people walking into schools and mowing down children unbelievable but I do have to say that today we have a president who is in flaming an already bad situation when you have a president who goes to Montana and says to a politician hey you are my guy because your body slammed somebody in the media when you have a president who calls the media mainstream media enemies of the people and it is rallies when people are threatening and literally almost physically threatening members of the media when you have a president when he was running for office is hey I'm gonna pay your legal bills if you beat up a protest what that simply does is make a very bad situation worse and many of these I'm sorry impulses are now coming out thank you mr. Svatovsky that was a very good answer and I concur with Bernie on a lot of that the cause of political violence there's a great divide in our country tremendous tremendous divide between the Democrats and the Republicans in our country and and it gets accented by president Trump's continuous attacks is dishonesties there's been a 57% increase in hate crimes in the last two years since president Trump came into office and he kind of gives continually gives winks to everyone from white nationalists to to those who hate and he looks to stir up this attitude of violence and and terrible feelings towards each other and I think that Trump is is very very responsible for a good portion of the political violence that's happening in our country today thank you mr. Zupan go ahead well I think it's incumbent upon anyone who's going to seek public office or is already in public office to not be a polarizer but to be a unifier unfortunately senator Sanders could go on for a long time about Donald Trump but he himself has been the most polarizing figure on the national national profile for longer than Donald Trump has been in office so if I'm elected and if I have the privilege of representing the people of Vermont in the Senate I would seek to be an example of unifying unifying by ideas and solutions because after all why is somebody sent to the Senate to represent the people of Vermont to find the best solutions for the biggest problems and I will look for those solutions whether they come from a Democrat or Republican or an independent in fact I try to put blind design and not even look where those ideas came from so I think it starts with the individual politician I think violence and guns doesn't mix together and especially when we have so many people with mental illnesses and politicians they only pay politics they cater to whomever is funding their campaign I think I actually applaud the governor of Vermont even though I am a down-to-the-art liberal who is running as a defendant I am a Democrat however on my social networks I've shared the what the government has done or got no field scope of Vermont who on April 11 when passes the gun legislation in four ways that is a good start if I'm able to do what he has done that is what I would do as your Congresswoman or your US Senate I'm sorry thank you Mr. Bestie thank you a quarter stone of my campaign has been to focus on issues not size I really think we all need to do that issues don't pick a side no two people agree you know I mean your best friends you don't agree on everything so in that way think of that and that will help us to unite also we need to remember the Internet and cell phones and all that's a relatively new and all of a sudden Fox News and and CMC and all these other stations every second they have some bad behavior that didn't use to be the case so we need to kind of step take a step back and realize we can't think oh my god the whole world's falling apart you know because then you jump in that for I think oh gosh those liberals are bad oh bad though those conservatives are bad it's not really that case it's somewhere in between so just remember that and I'm a uniter and I've always been I've got three kids I'm used to that battle you know it's a it's a challenge but yeah so we need to focus on uniting and working on focusing on issues not sites thank you Mr. Busson a more perfect union political violence we do a lot from Washington calling for forms of violence and people are taking the lead you know we need to be careful what we say even because we try to get something out people may take it the wrong way and go with it and we just need to be cautious with that and something else we need to be cautious with is acting on misinformation a lot of misinformation out there if we act on misinformation we're gonna make a mistake we have to get to the root and find accurate information and act on that we may be wrong we may be right but at least we will not have been mistaken so what's missing in is the in the debate is the ability to listen all we're doing is hollering at each other and nobody wants to listen and search for the common ground maybe there's some places we ought not to go on both sides but there's some common ground where we can agree on and build start to build a relationship and tear instead of tearing it all down thank you thank you mr. Gilbert yes to comment on that it's definitely on both sides and that's part of the reason why I ran as an independent I am more of a fiscal conservative I do lean more to the right I must admit having an opportunity to meet is Elizabeth up or a sova and Kai Schaefer they're two observers one from Frankfurt Germany the other from just outside of Moscow to observe our our process and our democracy here in in Vermont everybody should be very proud of the fact that you do have the right of freedom of expression without the threat of kicking someone low or and Tifa sending threatening letters to Desiree Marin I think it's extremely immature it's unprofessional and as a US senator to deflect blame either way I think there's some adults that definitely need to grow up all the way around thank you very much I have a quick follow-up question directed to Senator Sanders earlier today at a Vermont public radio Vermont PBS debate mr. Zupan here said these are my thoughts and you responded by saying they're pretty pathetic thoughts I'm wondering if you consider that sort of a remark civil and you have 30 seconds to respond to that well mr. Zupan suggested that my economic philosophy was that of North Korea which is a communist authoritarian dictatorship responsible for the death of millions of people in that country he also suggested that my views on economics are those of Venezuela needless to say those are widely inaccurate so maybe you should ask mr. Zupan whether it is appropriate to make statements that are so outrageously inaccurate well sure mr. Zupan oh I'd be very happy to answer it and actually I was talking about the collectivization and the ownership and the direction of the whole economy which is common to every socialist country obviously North Korea is an extreme totalitarian dictatorship which doesn't resemble oh let's see doesn't resemble Venezuela as much but the result of course is very similar in terms of the economic deprivation of its citizens so separating the political issue from the economic issue totalitarian collectivization of profit where the government decides that it owns either the profits or the means of production is socialism the end result is always the same so I think you know Senator Sanders might want to consider whether his worth his choice of words pathetic was well advised or not because let's wrap this well in model is what he wants to bring to our shores thank you mr. Zupan in the year since the New York Times and the New Yorker exposed Harvey Weinstein's alleged record of sexual misconduct the me too movement has brought new awareness and understanding to this endemic problem yet Congress has taken no action to address it what would you do in the U.S. Senate to combat sexual assault and harassment and why don't we start with mr. Gilbert will move that way and you'll each have 60 seconds to respond to something okay I start utilizing DNA technologies in the sense of I'm I'm a little torn with this due to the fact that having volunteered at the sexual assault crisis team in Washington County in Vermont these kind of displays of sexual assault no one deserves a sexual assault period especially a woman and I feel that it's being used as a political tool in these present times and I feel that they should start teaching our children at a young age how to be young gentlemen and young ladies again and being able to give mutual respect and I think that is something that has been lost in the in this recent present time and rather than tossing mud and accusations start utilizing DNA technologies in order to actually find out who's telling the truth and who is making up some new story mr. Bissha yeah seeking the truth is really part of the whole thing and to be in that position when we bring forth truth you know with our accused has the right to face the accuser and it goes through some rough times and what we see is a lot of times there's retribution which is where we need to be free from the threat of retribution and to bring it forth and speak the truth and just get it out there without the fear of retribution is one of the main things but there's much more to this subject than what we're gonna do in 90 seconds but that's that's one of the things and that's all I got to say at this time thank you mr. Bestie thank you well I have two daughters who are in middle school and college so very near and dear to my heart in this regard I think about this all the time I'm fortunate to live in Burlington at the Burlington School District and they've really made gone out of their way to help educate the young kids from elementary school all the way up about respect and boundaries and it's been very successful I have to say so it starts with the young ones at the school and then beyond that laws we need to be tough with our laws and fair and the third part is sometimes our laws are great but they languish for years and years before penalties given and I think we need to find ways to speed that up speed up our legal process so that there's real cause and effect I did this well guess what six months nine months a year later you're facing that consequence thank you follow I think our world is changing in so many ways the movement it's a positive thing and awareness to teach even our young folks what to say what to do how not to cross the boundary so I think it's a good movement but we should still love each other care about one another and try to be a very accommodating nation so I think it's not a bad idea thank you mr. Supham this is not a problem that's going to be fixed overnight because it's not a problem that's come upon us overnight the problem of sexual harassment which is a lack of respect for another person's basic human rights to have themselves not assaulted that has descended upon our civilization over decades and generations and the fix is was one that starts under the roof of the homes of Americans where there's a father and a mother in the house who teach their children love respect how to protect themselves and how to treat each other unfortunately there have been many movements in this country that have tended to talk down the basic infrastructure of family which is the very building block of American or any good civilization and what we need to do is we need to have a dialogue and a discourse that promotes celebrates reinforces the basic institution called the American family thank you thank you mr. Zippett finish that sentence I'll tell you that over a period of a few years you will see this harassment start to change in the right direction thank you mr. Zippett if I could ask you to respect the time limits that appreciate it mr. Zittowski go ahead as far as the me too movement I just have to say it's about time it's about time I've always recognized that unfortunately a majority of men seem to have a lack of respect for women and I didn't realize how pervasive how absolutely pervasive it's become in our culture and how far it's gone from Weinstein to some of the anchors that we've seen to some of the celebrities it's Bill Cosby it's it's it's heartbreaking and to me it's hard to understand because each person's worthy of respect and the entitled attitude that many men have is absolutely terrible it's difficult to make progress when we've just placed a man on the Supreme Court who's credibly accused of sexual assault and our president mocked the accuser our president makes the acute has mocked the accuser and supported other candidates also that have been involved in sexual assault thank you thank you senator Sanders and your answer if you wouldn't mind also just letting us know if there's any legislation you have sponsored since since the time thank you well sexual assault as everybody knows is is kind of at an epidemic level in this country about 20 25% of women indicated at one point or another in their lives they have been sexually assaulted thanks to your question Paul there is legislation in the Congress right now for a start to protect employees in the Congress to make sure that when women have been assaulted there is an impartial body for them to go to without fear to make their case and that is something that I am very strongly supported but I want to agree with Mr. Zupan actually and everybody else up here at the end of the day in my view I would frame it as a cultural revolution is that women may not be treated as second-class citizens women are worthy of absolute respect and that we have got to educate our young boys about a proper attitude toward women that bullying is not acceptable sexism is not acceptable thank you senator mr. Peacock so I just like to point out that it doesn't have to be a mother and a father it could be two fathers to two mothers that can teach their children right and wrong so that being said I think it's it's there's a lot of hyper masculinity in this country and it is a direct relation to Hollywood and and we really need we really need to think about that but we need to get get to family values and it's absolutely true at the home and it's lead by example so how do you how do you treat women how do you treat your mother how do you treat your sisters so it's it is really it's really about leading by example thank you thank you this next question is pretty straightforward so you can answer it as a yes or no if you would like if you need to elaborate a tiny bit that's acceptable but try to keep it under 30 seconds you all are running for a six-year term in the US Senate can you pledge tonight that if elected you will serve all six years and you will not run for another public office they would keep you from finishing your term and why don't we start with Senator Sanders and we'll move this way and we would talk to the other candidates who ran for president as well there's only one of those I don't know if you know this Paul but I did run for president of the United States yeah that's right and right now my focus is on the year 2018 but if you're asking me to make an absolute pledge as to whether I'll be running for president I'm not gonna make that pledge I have not made simple truth is I have not made that decision but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I may not run I may but on the other hand I may not the question was since you're running for a six-year term I know what the question was will you will you serve out your six-year term elected from elected president of the United States mmm probably impossible to be a senator and a president at the same time so the answer that question is probably no but I haven't made that decision it's the weather all right okay so the answer is no you're not committing to serving out your six-year term tonight the answer is I have not yet made a decision as to whether I will be running for president if I run and win the likelihood is I will not be Vermont senator okay I think I got it now mr. mr. Svetovsky will you pledge to serve out all six years if you're elected yes I will serve all six years of elected I will not be running for president in 2020 or anytime in the future you're all welcome to answer that second question you don't have to I don't want you to put you on the spot there mr. Japan yes I will gladly and proudly serve all six years and I will fully answer that question now and I will add that it's pretty evident that senator Sanders is laying the groundwork for a run which will probably come into full thrust on November 7th so I think the people have a right to demand to know from him if they elect him on November 6th is he going to serve for the full six years and he has clearly skirted the question thank you all right fuller go ahead oh I know everybody knows I was born in Nigeria wrong for the president of the United States I would be serving my full time well we appreciate you respecting the Constitution thank you go ahead well actually I was so frustrated with the candidates in 2016 I wrote my name in so technically I've run for president Mr. Sanders didn't win anyway yes I would absolutely pledge I really want this job I have a lot of energy and I would love it if you all voted for me US Senate thank you mr. Boussa six years my goal is to serve six years if I don't make it for some reason please investigate what I was looking into and my last two years I would plan on trying to raise up people in Vermont who would want to run and help them learn civics all right Mr. Gilbert yes if I'm elected as a US senator one of the first things I'm going to do is definitely go for term limits and I believe Bernie Sanders back when I first met him ran off ran on that platform before he became a US senator before he decided to pursue his president his presidency run yes you did burn I was there I may have been a lot younger but term limits is definitely something I agree with you do two terms as a US senator and then if you want to run for president and you can you can earn the American trust and become the president of the United States you have every right in the Constitution to pursue it Senators do you want to respond to the term limits actually I have never supported term limits and don't support it right now because I think it's undemocratic of people like the candidate who's an office they have the right to vote for that candidate if you don't term limit is vote them out so how about getting someone younger with some youth and some energy for some new technologies that's me all right let's let's keep it moving appreciate that let's keep it moving Mr. Peacock I think you're the only one left to answer the question six years or no absolutely I'd be an honor to serve Vermont for six years great thank you I've got one quick follow up question related to this for any of the candidates who would not pledge serving out all six years so I think that's just you senator Sanders it looks likely that governor Phil Scott will win re-election next week he's a Republican are you at all concerned that if you were not to win re-election that he would be a point or if I may say so if you were if you were to not serve out your term do you mind if I finish my question sir and then I'll let you speak do you have any concerns that if he were to be governor you were not to fill out your term that he would appoint a Republican to the Senate and all due respect I think it's a little bit presumptuous of you to determine who's going to become the next governor of the state of Vermont all right and I'm not quite so sure that governor Scott who I respect and like will in fact win but it's a little bit presumptuous for us to be making that assessment a week before an election any concerns if he is the governor let's let's worry about what happens on November 6th so you're telling us Bernie there's still a chance for us we have a chance to okay moving along here this is a question that was submitted by member of the audience here where do you stand on commonsense gun control and what and why do you or don't you support Vermont's recent gun legislation and if I could just add on to that question would you support those same measures at the federal level since you are running for a federal seat and not for a state seat why don't we start with Mr. Boussa and then go that way and you have why don't we take 60 seconds for this one wow that's pretty quick since I'm running under the constitution and Bill of Rights I'm pretty well strapped I'm a second amendment pro second amendment pro article 16 in Vermont so where I go on things like school shootings is a root cause analysis as to why this is occurring and what I've seen is that the root is secular humanistic progressive socialism and what does that progress to it progress is the godless communism is the next step and sucking the soul out of people in our universities and school system is what's really at the root cause of this along with some other things and if you don't believe me you can read some of the jack Sawyer's comments that he made along with this we have a situation of pharmaceutical drugs and depression the two don't mix and that's one of the reasons I believe in a pharmaceutical marijuana also go ahead Mr. Bestie and I just want to remind you to stick to the question as much as you can go ahead sir okay thank you uh yes I support the second amendment I also know that the second man was written in the 1700s and there was no forethought of this the kind of guns and weapons we have today so at some point whether it's today or tomorrow guns will get faster and it's more stronger and more powerful and more and more people will die in these instances it'll just get worse there has to be a limit at some point is it today was it two 10 years ago it has to happen soon and so I would support I do support the ban or reduction of assault rifles and uh stop shots stop shots I think I really love the governor for what he has done because what he has done I try so hard as an activist to do right after new town right before christmas in 2013 I am an activist and I love what the governor has done I shared him so many times on facebook everywhere and also too because I am a mother to a child with Down syndrome I am an accountant and a licensed insurance agent and it doesn't hurt or shooting people taking them to the hospital the entire family suffers I am a people person and it is one of the issues that I really would love to see done gone I am also a gunman I am also a licensed gunman I signed up for the second amendment but the governor has really done what I was what I wanted the last so many years I'm sorry no it's okay thank you mr uh go ahead mr. you know it's astounding that in the second most safe state in Vermont that we want to start instituting the restrictions on American citizens to keep and bear arms last year there were three only gun murders in the state there was a year not too long ago where there was zero those numbers are the envy of every other state in the union new york state new york city in chicago oh they have wonderful gun laws a lot of restrictive gun laws piling moron all the time and they are the murder capitals of the united states so what is the real motivation behind people who want to restrict the right to keep and bear arms I don't know you'd have to ask them but it's certainly not going to make Vermont to safer now as far as schools when you start your car you put it turn the ignition you put it in gear it gets up to 55 miles an hour that takes several seconds when you want to stop the car you don't apply the brake to the engine you apply to the wheel the most dynamic manifestation of movement what am I talking about you want to protect the students you put people in the schools with guns to protect them okay thank you mr. Svetovsky go ahead I do support sensible gun legislation I believe in the second amendment in that everybody certainly has a right to personal protection and to hunting weapons but we have comparatively to other countries a phenomenal excess of gun violence in our country you look at countries like japan where there were 12 murders last year Norway where it's in single digits we have thousands upon thousands and we need to close loopholes headgun shows there needs to be a waiting period to cut down on crimes of passion I believe assault rifles ar-15s there's no need for them hunting or protecting your family I believe they should be banned senator sanders has taken nra money he has voted against the brady bill five times and I think that that's wrap it up that's a difficult area for senator sanders senator sanders if you want to take a couple extra seconds to respond to that in your answer you can go ahead and do that never took any nra money in fact when I ran for reelection at the house we had strong opposition from the gun lobby um look nobody in this room or in this country has a magical answer to the terrible gun violence that is taking place all over this country and it's not just what happened in pittsburgh the other day it's happening almost every day in america in my view we do need while we support the second amendment sensible common sense common sense gun safety legislation by the way not a radical idea this is supported by the overwhelming majority of the american people including gun owners what does that mean it means that we strengthen the background check it means that we end the gun show loop it means that we end the strawman provision and we I would agree stop the sale and distribution of assault weapons in this country thank you um I'm just going to ask you a quick follow-up question uh because you did not respond to mr svetovsky's point about voting against the brady bill which in fact you did do you also said in uh after the july 2012 aurora colorado uh shooting a movie theater you told the addison county independent that quote decisions about gun control should be made as close to home as possible at the state level uh you obviously now support a number of federal gun laws i'm wondering if you can explain your change of heart it's not a change of heart i think gun i support very much what the state of vermont has done and that legislation but i think obviously you need action at the federal level as well in terms of the brady bill i made a promise when i ran for office in one in 1990 that i would not support the brady bill and among other things what has happened after the brady bill is that we were able to get computerized background checks which is a much more efficient and effective approach mr peacock i'd ask you to repeat the question because i've kind of forgotten um what it was but i've forgotten it too i think the question was um did you support the gun control legislation that uh governor scott uh supported here in vermont and would you support similar measures at the federal level okay uh i'm a hunter i'm a gun owner i support the second amendment now do i support the common sense gun laws um i think that i do what i don't what i didn't support was how it was rushed through i think every voice deserves to be heard and that means holding a hearing for for every piece of the legislation they held a hearing for the universal background check but they added in the clip limit and the age of 21 and maybe something else at the end without holding a public hearing so those are things that i would like to to see and in here from the from the general public about before i would make a decision especially before i would make a decision at the federal level but i'm sure that there would be oversight in committee hearings about that now i also do support the cdc um now that the dicky amendment is rescinded uh comprehensive study on gun violence in this country mr gilbert um i've taken the oath far too many times to be anti-gun to be honest with you i remember oslo norway that was where a police officer or an individual impersonated police officer and went on you know an easy killing spree now i don't support the kind of um school shootings that we're witnessing or or the violence that we're seeing in the streets and a lot of it is because of the rhetoric and being a being a former service member of two military branches i i can't i i i have used just about every weapon in the army with the exception of the opportunity to shoot a few tanks um having an opportunity to serve on two fast attack nuclear submarines whether it was a tomahawk cruise missile or a mark 48 torpedo i'm sorry um i have been proven under stress and that everything else that if you're properly trained you can properly save and help people with the second amendment okay thank you uh this is a question from a viewer at home that we received before the debate under article one section three of the united states constitution the senate is responsible for trying all impeachments what is an impeachable offense and has this president president trump committed an impeachable offense for which he should be tried and removed from office and i'll start this time with mr zupan you guys you all have 60 seconds to respond the answer the second question is no as far as what an impeachable offense is we have to go to the constitution to understand that and it's high crimes and misdemeanors and the bar for asserting a high crime and misdemeanor against the chief executive of the united states duly elected is deliberately very high and it has to be established by a uh a court that's called the house of representatives and then it has to be confirmed by a two-thirds majority of the senate the reason it's so high is because there's so much trust invested in the chief executive and president of the united states so there's a lot of atmospherics and a lot of personality issues and a lot of self-expression that many different people could choose not to like about the president but none of those things rise to even close to the level where one could plausibly assert uh grounds for impeachment give me the wording of the question yeah sure uh sir it's kind of a long one basically can you define an impeachable offense and do you believe that president trump has committed one an impeachable offense would be treason colluding with the enemy and uh i believe that president trump should go to trial i think that there's enough evidence there of course we're waiting on the Mueller report which will enlighten us all but uh we wait for that but i think that uh when we understand that the president directed Jared Kushner and Manafort and others to meet with russian officials to get dirt on the presidential on his presidential opponent when he encouraged russia to hack hillary and for god sakes once more her emails um i think that president trump has very likely um committed things that if they're not treason they're very close to it and i'll look forward to that trial in the senate to hear all the evidence but uh i think that Mueller has a devastating case and uh i think that president trump most certainly was involved in shady tactics and uh very curious to see him with president putin senator sanders well i don't know what mullah has because he's still doing it uh there is an investigation going on right now uh as to whether or not trump's campaign and trump uh colluded with russians if in fact it turns out that he did that is an impeachable offense if the president tries to impede that investigation by firing mullah or in any other way uh not allowing this investigation to go forward that's called obstruction of justice which i also think is an impeachable offense but right now that investigation is going on i think Mueller is doing a serious job and i think we can't answer that question until that investigation is completed thank you speak up um i i believe obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense um i i like senator sanders can't say the mullah investigation is still happening um i however i do not think the president is above the law no no one in this country is above the law so um that's all i have to say about that go ahead i definitely have to agree with brad um when you expose sap national security information even as for secretary of state um that used to be an offense that would send me off to prison if i exposed any of those secrets while i was serving in the fast technical submarine service um i think this is a tip for tat it's um in my view it's a political class playing games with american taxpayers money and i completely feel it's a waste of time he's he is our president president whether you like the way he uses twitter or not he's utilizing 21st century technology i must admit he is a new yorker i'm a boston red sock fan i've had some fun when it comes we know how how to cheer on our teams and my dad's a yankee i'm a red sock and he's converted my youngest son into a yankee fan so i mean i just i have to completely i apologize but yeah i think i can you know where i stand on that one i understand that the house of representatives brings the impeachment to the senate and the senate tries the case and since i would be in the position of trying a case i don't have an answer because i haven't seen the evidence right now and i'm keeping open mind both ways i may have to rule one way or the other mr bestie yes i'm certainly for an impeachable offense treason collaborating with the enemy things of that nature would be obviously to me impeachable um in regards to mr trump president trump i very much like his economy and i like those matter of fact way speaking and very open and candid with people on the other hand i am troubled by some of his activities uh the way he relates to lab mere putin and i still don't know what he did for those two hours alone um i also am concerned about his closeness to other parties north korea etc but all that said is a very very high bar for impeachment so until something's actually presented that would prove impeachment i think i don't really know waiting for the Mueller investigation and any other information that come out comes out i think i'm just going to use this opportunity to talk to the bar month that i really do care about people i lost my mother on my 14th birthday in nigeria she was having twins and i've seen the same incident or so many things in this nation i am for health care i am for immigration reform i am for gun control i am for 15 dollars minimum way and i love what special counsel molla is doing i really technically have no say into what happens to the investigation until i become a u.s senator and i would like to tell all the bar month to vote for me because i am a people person and i'm here for a change thank you very much uh as a u.s senator your number one job is to vote in the u.s senate in your first term in the senate senator sanders you missed only 1.7 percent of the roll call votes that were held that's very close to the average of your peers but in your second term that was not the case in 2016 you missed nearly 71 percent of the roll call votes that was 115 out of 163 votes that were held that calendar year can each of you pledge tonight that you will miss no more than 5 percent of the roll call votes during your term we start again sanders and we'll uh we'll go this way and you've got um 60 seconds to respond okay well i i think maybe you didn't hear me the first time i i ran for president of the united states yep and when you run for president of the united states um you actually go around the country and you have to campaign in order to do that and i am very proud that here in vermont on the primary election night we received 86 percent of the vote that's the highest percentage of any candidate in the campaign uh but the bottom line is you're asking me the same question as you asked me uh before uh i returned by the way uh while i did miss many votes on most of those votes were kind of left-sided votes but on key votes where my vote was needed i did come back to washington so you're asking me once again will i be running for president of the united states if somebody and these ladies and gentlemen run for president of the united states they're going to miss some votes if i run for president of the united states i will also miss votes with all due respect sir i am aware that you ran for president 2016 i am also aware that you ran for us senate in 2012 and i'm also aware that you're running for us senate in 2018 so the specific question was uh whether you would commit to missing no more than well that's the same and it sounds like your answer is no you're the same question is if somebody runs i'm asking you well it is the same question whether you're it is if you run for president voting i would suggest that you check and see when people run for president who are in the senate if they miss votes and the answer is they do that's correct and we'll move on just a second but for the record i do want to mention that there were several other us senators who ran for president in 2016 you missed more votes than any of the others right i'm not so sure that that is actually in fact the case it's also true you you missed more votes than many of the candidates who ran in 2008 2012 uh mr svetovsky will you commit to missing no more than five percent of the votes if you're elected i will absolutely commit to not missing more than five percent of the votes i won't miss that many and neither will i be condescending arrogant or insulin about it thank you mr zpan thank you um i will absolutely pledge to not miss five percent of the votes in fact i will pledge that i will crawl over broken glass in my shorts to vote but we don't want to go that far furthermore i think it's astounding that senator sanders is being allowed to dodge the question of whether he would accept a re-election to do a job that he will not pledge to fulfill he's running for president astounding and i think the voters of vermont in this room ought to take notice of his answer that he will not commit to being present to do his job senator sanders do you want to respond to that or do you want to move on as a united states senator vermont i am leading the effort successfully to move this country to health care for all leading the effort successfully to raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour leading the effort successfully to make sure that public colleges and universities are tuition-free make moving forward successfully not to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top one percent but to demand that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes that's the record that i've established over the last six years thank you to the audience members for your enthusiasm follow go ahead i am a license insurance agent and when i was an agent i didn't care to make a mission off of my policy old death and i really do like politicians telling us the truth because it is impossible to have also legislate medicare for whole hear me how it is impossible in the u.s. congress to have medicare for all because this will take me about three hours but i'm going to cut this short well i apologize i'm going to actually just interrupt you because the question was whether you commit to uh voting for to not missing more than five percent of your election to the senate i i guess i'm the only one on this stage who cannot run to become the president of the united state so if given the opportunity i will fulfill you will have my 100 percent vote there's no reason to miss five percent or two percent or one percent okay we love my full commitment thank you mr bestie well my friends will all tell you that i'm about records and working hard so not only will i go under the five percent my goal will be to be to set the record the best attendance ever in the us senate so that's what i'll do thank you oh and then i'd also like to get the applause someday that uh bernie gets that would be a good record anyone anyone out there all right mr busa go ahead so my past record work history i've been very dedicated to my job as far as being present for five percent i cannot say that for sure i did hear bernie say one thing that his vote wouldn't have changed anything but as long as my voice was heard if there was another pressing issue that i needed more information on i would go and get it if the circumstance led me free to go do that and without knowing circumstances that may arise this thing that's going on in the border is one thing i would want to go down there and if what i was going to vote on is going to pass or my vote wouldn't matter i would i would take the opportunity to go to the site and see what was going on so i could act on truth okay thank you thank you over making it five percent is i think it's pretty easy i was bottled up in a submarine for three hundred thirty three days out of a year we were there 24 seven so i would and being as motivated as i am to pursue term limits i would try to make every single vote unless there is some medical emergency within my family and even then i'll find a way to cast it one way or another thank you mr peacock so much to my husband chagrin i told him last night that i was going to run for president but then he told me that i'm too young so i cannot run for president and i actually already knew that but but uh you know due to some life altering event of course i would i would absolutely be under five percent okay great uh we're gonna move on to uh questions uh or one question uh if you can pose one question to one other candidate um if you could please try to keep your questions uh to the question form not the statement form i'd appreciate it um and responses can be up to 60 seconds per person um why don't we start with you mr svetovsky and then we'll go around that way mr zupan next so just name name the person first if you would and then go ahead with your question the person you're asking the question um senator sanders i'd like to ask you why there were over 600 pages of federal election commission violations and i'd like to know where your tax returns are and where the 10 million dollar donation came from and uh during your campaign so right you can help me with that 10 million john would be in great shape that's nonsense uh you know i frankly don't know what you're talking about about a 10 million dollar donation in fact what we have done is not only help lead the effort against this disastrous citizens united supreme court decision which allows billionaires to buy elections but as it happens my presidential campaign has opened up and i think began the process for candidates all over this country not to look at large corporations and wealthy individuals for their contributions and what you are seeing today all over this country is people saying as i said in 2016 no we're not going to take our corporate packs we're going to look at small individual contributions and if you look what's going on in this country today that is the trend and that is a very good thing okay um can i have a follow-up uh let's let's move on if that's okay mr zupan go ahead um this is to senator sanders senator sanders is fond of talking about um his success in raising the notion of a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage as if that was going to solve the problems of america's lower end workers actually my idea is that i noticed that 15 an hour actually doesn't cut it especially when workers are rejecting the increase because they would lose if you could get to the question here it is pretty soon thank you because they would exist they would lose their existing benefits so my question to senator sanders is would you join me in supporting an end to the benefits cliff which causes otherwise productive people to either stay home or give up jobs where the increase in their salary would make them ineligible for existing benefits two points number one yeah you're right 15 dollars an hour minimum wage is not enough but you know what it's substantially better than eight dollars or ten dollars or twelve dollars and can make a heck of a lot of difference in a working person's life so i am very proud to have introduced the lead legislation which now has 30 cosponses in the senate to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour and i'm delighted to see that all over this country that minimum wage is going up to 15 dollars an hour and i'm delighted and proud that amazon as a result of our efforts has raised their minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour now if you're talking about as i understand what you're saying that there are instances where people get a wage increase they lose food foods lose food stamps or they lose their childcare benefits if that's what you're referring to you're right that is absurd and that is a disincentive to many people to go out and get decent paying jobs so would you join me in sponsoring let's let's move on i don't have to join you i've been there for years on that i'm asking you thank you we haven't done it thank you haven't done it why don't you we're gonna we're gonna move on i imagine you might get some other questions from the other candidate senator i seem to be a popular guy you do uh well you are running for president bernie follow yeah go ahead question for every like senator sanness obviously you are going to run in 2020 i saw you on the tv election night saying that you will be running if you are are you going to run again as a democrat or are you going to run i really do prefer you run as a republican senator sanders well i think it's fair to say uh full shoddy i will not be running as a republican i think that's fair to say but let me just say this i'm glad you johnny indicated that i got 10 million dollars and you heard me on television saying i was going to run all of that is great news to me i'm not aware of that and here's the simple and honest truth people can like it or not agree or not i have not made that decision right now my focus is on getting elected to the united states senate in 2018 and being the very best senator that i can be can i do a follow no we're gonna keep moving along if that's okay mr bestie go ahead oh yes i'll keep the the street going to senator sanders hypothetically if say russell bestie were to win us senate in a week what advice would you give to me good question russell what i have tried to do is is a congressman in vermont before then a mayor in burlington and it's the united states senate i think it is fair to say no one knows for sure i've held more town meetings in the state of vermont every part of the state of vermont then probably any member of congress in the history of the state of vermont and i think that would be my answer that at the end of the day you got to stay close to the people and once you get to washington it is an incredible bubble and you're surrounded by powerful lobbyists who you know one should have owed their way and i think the best antidote to that is stay as close to the people as you can thank you mr busa my question is to everyone in this room but senator sanders you may answer first our federal debt is 105 percent of our gross domestic product my question is have you contacted and had conversation with the federal reserve as to what gives our dollar its value and at what rate inflation kick in no i have not my contact with the federal reserve was to demand an audit of the fed after the wall street bailout to find out in fact how much money of the fed lent not only the corporations in this month in this country and not only the banks in this country but the central banks all over the world but your point is well taken in the sense that we have i think now about a 21 trillion dollar national debt and one of the many reasons i voted against trumps huge uh tax break uh for the rich is it will drive up the debt by another trillion and a half dollars and one of the other areas by the way that is not talked about terribly much by republicans or many democrats is we have to take a hard look at a 700 billion dollar defense budget and a depend defense department that has is the only major as yet to be audited so your concern is legitimate and it is an issue that we've got to address can he answer to part of the question of what gives our dollar its value i think we're actually just going to move on if that's okay go ahead mr gobert may i ask uh one person okay sorry as farmers if i was elected as your u.s senator what would you ask for me to help you become more productive more profitable farmer in the state of vermont i think i would ask you to do something about health care and student loan debt outstanding seeing how both of us are still battling with student loan debt i agree with you 100 percent all right i'm glad you brought that up because i hope we get to discuss that here in a moment okay thank you uh go ahead mr peacock mr zupan what do you support the equality act and what do you as a u.s senator um the equality act uh is designed to express the fact that all people in the united states all citizens have the right to make all the choices that they want about their own lifestyle i believe that people have the right to make their choices about lifestyle is there any other part of that act that or question that i have not responded to that you'd like to hear me say so that's a no well perhaps you ought to educate me further about the details of the equality act so the equality act and let's just keep it very brief in the interest of time it's it's an extension of the 1964 civil rights act for all lgbtq people which allows them to do what not be discriminated for housing not getting fired for being gay right i totally support people having equal rights so that they're not discriminated against for the choice of lifestyle and not discriminated against in jobs i support that senator sanders you've got a question to ask of one of your peers here let me um you can't ask yourself burning but we didn't explicitly i apologize i just needed to get a little all in there a couple of weeks ago the intergovernmental panel on climate change released the 700 page report and what they reported should scare the bejesus out of every person not only in our country and in the world and what they said is that climate change is very real climate change is created by human activity climate change is already causing devastating problems in this country around the world and he was what is most scary is they said if we don't get our act together in the next 12 12 years and transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy there will be irreparable harm to the planet we're leaving our kids and our grandchildren mr. superman do you agree that climate change is real that it is man-made and that it is already causing irreparable harm and that we need drastic action to deal with it every time this subject comes up it's preceded with an amount of fear mongering that is then not addressed with any solutions i'm going to come up with the solutions first and leave the fear mongering to senator sanders who has no solutions he only wants to put somebody on the spot thinking he's going to earn brownie points with the voters so here's what i have to say and it's good news you know our governor has talked about having 35 percent renewable energy by 2050 i say that that's a very pale and wimpy objective especially when the head of google engineering ray Kurzweil has stated that if the federal government only got out of the way of picking favorites in the renewable energy field we could have 90 to 100 percent renewables in 12 years by 2030 so if i'm the u.s senator i'm somebody who wants to have renewables who wants to have the cleanest air who wants to have people that should give the choice of their energy i will see that the the innovation stifling efforts of the federal government to pick and choose favorites thank you over and that the uh the the renewables okay i'm going to just interrupt you quickly um you didn't actually answer the question which is uh whether you believe climate change is real is largely uh caused by man and what was the third part of your question senator it's already causing devastating problems already causing the same problems senator sandis can ask the question and i can make my answer my answer gave something more valuable than the curiosity as to what my internal beliefs are my answer gave a solution to the problem he identified that's my answer i can briefly respond you know actually i will let you respond um what is other candidates i'm gonna let you respond next question guys hold on one second why should he respond thank you everybody uh we i was going to ask about this question i'm glad senator sandis brought it up i'd like to give each of you a chance to answer the question so why don't we just start going back along this way um and i will repeat the question and senator sandis uh correct me if i get it wrong but uh you asked whether climate change is real whether it's man made and whether it's already causing devastating effects on this planet so go ahead mr sotowski um climate change is real it is caused by man um you look at uh from the beginning of history to the industrial revolution it is amazing what we have done in the past 150 years and uh i believe yes the temperature of the oceans has already gone up over a degree our the storms that we get are tremendous that 99 it's clear that with 99 percent of scientists agreeing um i believe it's very real and it is caused by by man senator sandis we'd like to answer your own question um the issue is not frankly what mr zupan and by the way what mr zupan's response is what republicans often say they usually phrase it i'm not a scientist i don't know i think sam that's not true at all party but the point is it actually conducted everybody that's allowed the senator to finish his answer everybody else let's let's senator finishes as the moderator indicated you didn't answer a very simple but you're trying to put words in my mouth senator sandis and i won't accept it mr zupan answer the question i gave you in my view climate change is very real and if we love our children and our grandchildren and if we want to leave them a planet that is healthy and habitable we have got to stand up to the fossil fuel industry have the guts to take them on to tell them that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet and that we need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy and by the way when we do that we will not only save the planet will lower energy cost and create millions of good paying jobs thank you uh i absolutely believe climate change is real uh whether it's man-made or not i mean i personally believe so but i think we all get bogged down in that a little bit too much um it's real so let's take care of it um as a farmer i've been on the front lines of climate change for 13 years now i've seen the erosion in our fields i've seen the diseases in the past go crazy and it's getting harder and harder to farm organically so that's going to be a major problem that's that's my life so my life is online and so is a lot of farmers in this state and throughout this throughout this country and world could you please rephrase the question do you believe that climate change is real yes man-made i do believe it's real okay i do not i do not agree with it being totally man-made yet but please complete and whether it's already causing devastating harm to the planet it's definitely causing um some issues but i definitely do not feel that the the state of vermont being the smallest footprint state should be the one to pay carbon taxes i mean you've got number one texas number two california number three pennsylvania and yet they're coming to our legislature one of the poorest states arise in poverty since 2016 rather than giving us the funding so we can design these technologies perfect them and sell them locally nationally and internationally to china and india the other major carbon polluters on the planet i would as a u.s senator i would certainly lobby for that kind of funding to bring those jobs here in vermont to create those technologies i believe we have been experienced global warming since the ice age i live on glacier till and i think this building might also be built on glacier till so we have been warming since the ice age and we've been adapting now what percent of man-made activity is uh causing it to warm up quicker i don't know that percent but i do know that the percent of man-made pollution is 100 percent so in the areas of air water dirt and food we need to get straight on that and as far as our young people we need to encourage them to take on entrepreneurship and develop new things as far as the acid coming out of stacks we need to continue our development of the scrubbers and continue going forward in the solar panels i mean i don't like them on the organic fields i'll tell you that much but on house tops barn tops over park lots they make sense and in vermont as it gets warmer we're going to burn less to wrap it up here so one dumb thing is changing our clocks back to a colder hour in the spring to burn more fuel any other thing well i think we're spraying a little bit here so uh mr bestie why don't you go ahead thank you uh if you go to the beaches of the west coast the beaches over the last 40 years are shrank tremendously same on the east coast you go to the mountains out west you go to the mountains in new zeal and you go to the mountains switch on the glaciers have disappeared so you cannot argue i don't think in any way that the earth is not warmed that's also collected by nasa and others it shows the earth is warm second if you look at the carbon count published by nasa it has spiked by two orders of magna 100 times just since the industrial revolution so you can draw your own conclusions but regardless of whether you believe the cause is at risk or some oscillation or whatever the fact is the carbon count has gone up and the temperature has gone up there's no arguing those two points so so oceans don't heat up i'm not done let's let him interrupt me i apologize thank you um and so why would we not for the for our own children and our grandchildren and the generations come do what we can to control the carbon count since it sure as heck seems to be related so yes i would very much do what we could solar panels there's all kinds of new technologies being developed all those things we need to pursue thank you follow i i do support senator sandas on climate change i was one of the activists who go after some people that they are climate change denial i supported vice president al goh one on one and so we do believe in climate change your zone layer the atmosphere condition and we cannot i support senator sandas to on the fossil fuel i have signed something online regarding climate change so i do support senator sandas okay thank you very much um a little bit earlier senator sanders brought up the defense spending foundation and this brings up a question that was submitted ahead of the forum by a person out in the broader audience who wrote i'd like to know if senator sanders position on the f-35 has changed and if not why he still supports it despite being so vocal against military spending the person of course is referring to the planned basing of f-35 fighter jets at the south berlington vermont national guard headquarters and i'd actually like to pose this to everybody um not just senator sanders so why don't we actually start with um mr bestie and then we'll move um this way and so the question again is uh whether you support the basing of f-35s um in south berlington uh yes i do support the basing of f-35s in south berlington whether we like it or not we need protection the united states and it's incumbent upon all states to do their part they happen to be based here in vermont i know a number of the national guardsmen who fly there and they're all very much in favor for it as well you know i mean i don't really like it all the time hearing the noise and whatnot but we owe it to our country to do just that and nowadays with these new hypersonic missiles that are being developed by some countries including russia these things travel four thousand miles an hour so there we need to have protection additionally we need to work harder to collaborate with other countries and start building bridges we can't have this us versus them mentality because someday someone's going to push a button and we'll all be in a whole heap of trouble mr busa yeah i haven't actually heard enough 35 yet but with all the technology i would think there should be some way of uh eliminating the extreme noise from those things and uh if they want to move them to another base i don't have a problem with that and uh let the locals holler it out where it is but does need to be in the northeast okay mr gilbert having had the responsibility of those kind of weapons and also i am definitely in support of the f35 for the vermont international guard it's leading edge 21st century technology my oldest son is in the u.s. air force i want my children learning on the latest leading edge technology and i want i would definitely bring it to the state of vermont um i opposed the f35 all the towns that would be affected have opposed it and you know you're going against democracy so um i know senator senators probably has a lot more uh info on on why and uh i'd love to see it at some point but um but i i do oppose it the majority of the vermonters around here around this area that that will be affected do and senator i'm just going to repeat the question because there's a second part that was directed specifically to you i'd like to know if senator senators position on the f35 has changed and if not why he still supports it despite being so vocal against military spending there are two separate issues there i am one of the i think strongest opponents of a never ending increasing military budget we talked earlier about um the national debt but we have not talked about the fact that we now spend more on defense than the next 10 countries combined and that the department of defense is the only agency of government not to have gone through a thorough order so that's issue number one issue number two is f35 and let us be very clear the f35 has been worked on the case the f35 is here the f35 is the fight a plane of choice of nato and the united states and force so the real question musta is not whether we're going to have it at 35 or not but whether it is located in vermont or in south carolina or perhaps in florida i happen to be a very strong supporter very proud of the vermont national god they do a great job and i think the evidence is pretty clear to answer brad's question if we don't get the f35 and our people may disagree with me but if we do not get the f35 here it will be a devastating blow to the vermont national god it will mean the loss of probably hundreds of jobs and an important part of our economy so it's not whether you're for it or against it in a sense it's here it's whether it is in vermont or whether it's in south carolina and i want to support the vermont national god we found something to agree on mr sotowski go ahead and i'll all agree there too i also oppose the astronomical defense spending in our country but um the f35 is going to come to be and the question is is where is the right location and uh i think the people of south berlington and and the community needs to uh be heard and uh you know and be respected as they weigh in but uh i think that uh you know the question is location not not whether or not we have the f35 national defense is the most legitimate constitutional role of the federal government accordingly i wholeheartedly support the presence of the f35 as a fighting vehicle and i support its being here in vermont what i don't support is the snipping and snapping at the american defense budget even though like medicare and medicare there's an amazing amount of fraud corruption and waste that ought to be reduced when senator sanders talks about us having a greater defense budget than the next 10 countries combined i say that's wonderful because we have 10 times as many enemies gunning for us as the next 10 countries combined primary responsibility above all responsibilities of the federal government is to defend and protect everybody sitting in this room and every one of the 326 million americans and i'm so thankful for it we've got time for just a couple more questions here uh uh there are a lot more uh topics of course i want to get to uh oh i'm so sorry yes i apologize go ahead i disagree with senator sanders on f35 i am from georgia and the the base is verify this bill is few minutes from my house well whenever the republican takes office they put more money money into defense but we are not fighting anymore now the f35 was supposed to have cost about half a billion it is not costing us it was supposed to have been done in 2016 in order to continue the pattern it hasn't been done and just like uh one of my colleagues talk about the carbon monoxide is bringing carbon to that month so i am against the f35 and not only that as an accountant it's a way to take money away from social security from medicare from male care by putting more money into defense so that's why i do not agree with senator sanders on f35 thank you um i'd like to get back to a topic that mr peacock spoke eloquently about earlier on which is the state of agriculture in vermont um and uh you weren't speaking specifically about it is the case that derrick farms in vermont and throughout the country are on life support i'm wondering what you would do uh to support derrick farmers and vermont agriculture in general um in the us senate why don't we start with you mr peacock then we'll uh go towards senator sanders and back around that way okay and let's uh why don't we take 45 seconds on this one i apologize just so we can get through a couple more questions before the end of the debate go ahead sure um i i believe that we need to look to our neighbors of the north and and look at their supply side system uh there are other great ideas out there creating a regional um co-ops cooperatives um i believe that vermont could could its own dairy brand that i mean we have we have the markets we have montreal we have new york we have boston we have hartford we have albany so it's just it's just a matter of figuring out quota i mean it's we're overproducing and so we need our family farms instead of the of our state and i'm i'm fully behind the uh the dairy industry here thank you senator sanders well we made a tiny bit of progress and passing and getting the margin protection program the mpp into vermont which brings about six million dollars to dairy farmers who desperately need it but i agree with rat at the end of the day we have to address the crisis of milk price volatility goes up farms over produce and then prices go down and they're stuck with huge debt uh and i believe and i believe for a very long time that we need supply management and i'm happy to say that i think uh within the dairy industry in the state more and more farmers uh at that great mr svetoski i also believe we need supply management uh two and a half percent in our state our farmers and they need to be supported and uh the uh they're making a fraction of what of the profit that they made 10 years ago selling milk and and also the other issue is the wastewater the uh there needs to be one standard for the towns and for the farms farmers shouldn't lose their permit when uh for much much great abuse of our waterways the uh the town's dump wastewater needs to be one standard nobody's more concerned about the environment than our farmers need to be supported in every way possible once you know farming is the cornerstone of the life of lifestyle and life blood of vermont and the good news is that there's an amazing amount of new technology that is going to be helping them and that is helping them precision fertilizing order order robotic milking artificial intelligence all of these new ideas that we need to help our farmers to become educated about you know we have the great brand when it comes to food it's not fully been utilized the vermont brand of artisan food needs to be promoted and if it was promoted properly it would help to reinforce the viability of our vermont farms and i think there's great opportunity there uh so transitioning to a sustainable farming based on the new technologies available senator sanders referred to the margin program in february 18 he voted against that program uh if it was part of a larger bill an appropriations bill yeah then i may have voted against it but it's something i strongly supporting of advocated generally if you strongly support something you vote for it not if it's in a larger bill whether other things you don't support okay so thank you i thought you've reached your timeline here so thanks let's move along i think i do support our farmers have been to the farmers market where they have fresh produce and the milk industry they do need the latest technology so that they can keep on producing and i also want to say one thing beef is so cheap in vermont i guess it's coming from our farmers i don't know how oh when i came here about 35 years ago i'm still able to the same price in vermont so i really do support our farmers yes uh so a lot of people come to vermont and they come here because one we have the best beef in the world right number two they come here for the schools they come here for the scenic beauty of vermont and they come here for the food to a lesser extent and what we need to do is support our farmers because farm is just part of who we are when you drive across the connecticut river in vermont you just feel that sense of farming and of back to nature and all those good things so i very much would support working with the farmers they have some tough times ahead of them obviously and so we need to work hard to help them but i think that's an important issue bruce yeah i think we have to really look and see why we got into the predicament we're in and question organic or non-organic we need to market organic farming in vermont because that's what people think we are chemical farming chemical fertilizing folks put 800 head of cattle on a few acres man all you have is mud all right we need to figure out how many acres per head and go back to that the farmers are going to have to do it they're going to have to come down and we're going to have to help them we're going to have to buy their products and a story coming from a traditional farming family the gilbert farm in williams down vermont the christmas tree farm uncles great aunts uncles i would definitely bring back the federal funding for farmers in order to bring back their markets locally more farm table for the restaurants here across all 14 counties i would definitely give them the long term low interest rate loans in order to upgrade their technology produce more milk and sell it here locally and reestablish the markets across all 14 counties of vermont rather than selling just to the big money conglomerates in the mid midwest i would love to bring vermont back there's several traditional industries that i feel benefit from a realigning for the 21st century and that is something i would definitely support i know i enjoyed being on the farm i enjoyed eating a lot of green apples getting sick making apple pie and maple syrup when i got older some hearts utter all right thank you we're very close to the end here we've got time for just one more question i'm going to skip the closing statements i want to get to this very most important question in many people's minds it's been the topic care but almost 10 years ago now getting close uh congress passed the affordable care act better known as obama care uh passed in 2009 2010 would you favor its repeal would you go further than it did um such as with the single payer medic and followed i almost cut you off last time around so i don't give you the first shot at this and then we'll just come back down the line this way yeah you'll have a one minute and then that will be the end of the debate i really do believe in what senator sandas is trying to do on medicare for all but this this is a subject or a topic that can take about three hours so but i'll be very brief you're welcome to stay after we try so hard with obama care it's wasn't perfect nonetheless health insurance is a very very complicated issue that is why i don't believe we must tell people i'm gonna give you medicare for all because medicare was actually prepaid just like social security as an accountant i can do people's taxes i have the ti n to five people's taxes and the question i was raising up my hand for senator sandas i don't know how he's going to people that have already prepaid into the health insurance the 65 and over how is senator sandas you could wrap it up going to equalize or have an equilibrium to give everybody medicare for all thank you so i don't see it possible he's going to take time i'm sorry we're well beyond your time here i apologize i know we could spend a lot more time in this question i apologize for cutting it short go ahead wrestle uh yes healthcare for all is a very noble concept but it also has to be physically responsible i feel so i think we need to move in steps in a number of different ways and i've worked in healthcare industry most of my life so i'm pretty knowledgeable on the topic uh first of all i think we could pursue baseline healthcare you know baseline you seat you're sick you see a doctor that kind of thing i think that's something that's achievable today um but we really need to talk the root of the problem that's the cost the cost is crazy for a ton of reasons you know number one we could for example bring in more nurses and more physicians assistants to cover more baseline treatment in the doctor's office and thereby lower costs that way number two liability laws you know a lot of companies there's companies out there who threaten a billion dollar lawsuit and then sue for a hundred million well that cost we're the ones who pay that cost number three the fda i work with them a lot and they're great people they help our industry a lot but they could be streamlined a lot as well i've seen number of instances where costs could be lower substantially by working more thoroughly uh with the fda so i fda um so yes done thank you very much mr busa we need to differentiate between health care and sick care folks health care is eating green when you're not that you go and get into sick care if you don't if you're healthy you don't need to sit here you're not gonna know any affordable care act on page 107 there's a place in there for health care sharing you don't have to go through and you could uh get common people and share your expenses there is another thing that we could do and allow insurance companies new insurance companies amongst yourselves to come up without interfering it with you and telling you you can't do that all right great that's the bottom line go ahead um as a veteran i shouldn't have to travel over 100 miles to go to white rejuvenation or to go up all the way to newport because my primary physician is is in that location you've got one of the best medical facilities up here in uvm one of the best researched medical schools you've got dartmouth which is also in the top 10 and yet we've got several hospitals in all 14 counties across the state of vermont that don't have access to specific leading edge medical technology because they are what they're too small they can't quite afford it i would love to be the us senator in order to help bring many of the leading edge treatments seeing how my father just had his second knee replacement done and we we had a close call on that one but he's still he got the first 10-year warranty out of his first one and let's see if we can make it last a little longer on this one um i'm all about bringing back bringing the funding to to bring leading edge treatments to all the facilities and not just basically based on a population thank you mr peacock so as far as far as i can answer the question um do i do i support obama care yes do you support obama care do you would you repeal it would you go further than it did right i do support obama care i actually ended up paying more for my health however i'm okay with that because it gave millions of americans an opportunity to have health insurance now do i agree with the individual mandate i'm not so sure about that but it was a way to fund it at that time um do i support universal health care absolutely i think it's it's it's essential um and i did read our revolution and senator sanders um actually put put out a plan of how it could be implemented over time so you know reducing the age of 25 and and things like that but i'm you know i'm not a spokesperson for you so conveniently uh he's next up so go ahead senator sanders i voted for the aca uh many millions of people finally got health insurance we didn't have it it also ended something which is we're worried about right now it ended the obscenity of insurance companies denying coverage to people who had pre-existing conditions and that is obviously a step forward but it did not go far enough we are today and everybody should know this when we argue about health care that our dysfunctional system today enables us to spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation twice as much as our friends in canada and yet we got 30 million people uninsured and even more who are underinsured and we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs medicare is a good program i would add benefits to it for seeing such as dental care and hearing aids but it's a good strong program the american people 70 percent of the american people said let us expand medicare to cover every man woman and child that is the legislation i've introduced obviously i strongly support that john absolutely support obama care as the first national health insurance it was an amazing accomplishment especially when the opposing party unanimously opposed it and worked hard to derail it i was it was absolutely excellent i would uh hillary clinton put forth the idea of expanding the funding to community health centers which are absolutely wonderful provide excellent care in our own communities we need to with whatever we can make the most wonderful proposals in the world i could promise free tuition i could promise free health care i could promise the world but unless it has a realistic chance of passing unless it can be something that actually can go through and be accomplished it's useless so i would look to expand it um it used to be one of the jlp's favorite uh things to attack now it's supported by a good healthy majority of people in our country forbs magazine said they had been dead wrong obama care was was an excellent initiative i believe it is and yes we could expand it but we need to work with realistic proposals thank you arts do i understand there are going to be no closing statements that's correct this is that okay health care is a service i want to see the best health care for everybody better than what billionaires have today how are we going to have that we're going to have that by expanding the possibilities for people to choose we're going to have it by breaking down the doors and barriers that limit me from going across a state line to buy my insurance and every other american you know a funny thing happens when you have expanded competition the product quality and service goes up innovation goes up and the cost of it goes down health savings accounts home savings account i mean home health savings accounts cost of fda approval has to be reduced two billion dollars to get a new drug approved this is ridiculous tort reform and full cultivation of a biomedical breakthroughs within two years every 73 days we're going to double the amount of medical knowledge the amazing possibilities with the genome for america is great but it's not going to happen by being handed government control i wish i had time to tell you about the initiative i want to promote for international students to come here and fill all of the vacant schools here but i'm afraid that we don't so i just want to thank everyone for being here and i want to remind you before we all we were going to have closing statements so i apologize that i want to i want to come as many uh questions in as possible i appreciate your uh flexibility here i want to remind everybody that the election is one week from tomorrow that's tuesday november 6th it's not too late uh we have same day um uh voting same day registration that's right here in vermont and so you're still able to vote even if you're not registered you can call your town clerk you can go down there and vote anytime you'd like you can get in touch with the secretary of state's office and your town clerk to have a ballot sent to you i want to thank channel 17 for hosting this the o'brien center for hosting us here and most of all the candidates for being part in this um civil and spirited debate i appreciate it let's give them a round of applause thank you can we can we do a 30 second no i'm sorry this is the end but if people want to uh wait around afterward we can we can talk amongst ourselves thank you very much have a good night