00:00I'm Tanya Christian, News and Politics Editor at Essence Magazine.
00:04Recently, I, along with News and Politics Director Ayesha Callahan,
00:07sat down with a number of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
00:12When we spoke to them, we asked,
00:13what message would you like to send to black women voters?
00:17Black voters need to understand their power,
00:19and they are going to significantly determine
00:21who the nominee of this party is going to be.
00:24And it's not enough to determine the nominee,
00:26we need to determine the agenda of the party.
00:28Because, you know, King spoke about this,
00:31and in many ways, African Americans are a bellwether
00:35for where the country is going.
00:37And when you see issues of poverty, access to capital, gun violence,
00:42these are issues that are at the center of a lot of the struggle
00:44that black communities are still in.
00:46And so as a person for 20 years now, 20-plus years now,
00:50has been living and working in a black and brown community,
00:52was a mayor of a black and brown city,
00:54I want to see the next president really have an agenda
00:56to drive towards equality of opportunity, justice for all,
01:01and to really look at issues in a way that is going to address
01:05historic, systemic bigotry and racism
01:08that we saw up to the 60s and 70s
01:11that have often helped to write out of opportunity
01:14African American communities.
01:15And so I think this could be one of those breakthrough elections
01:18where blacks not only participate at high levels,
01:21but help to shape the agenda for the next generation.
01:24Now you just mentioned agenda.
01:26What would your agenda be?
01:28Well, look, I tell people life is about purpose, not position.
01:31I got into politics because a community of mostly low-income housing advocates,
01:37I was a lawyer representing them,
01:40wanted me to get into politics, fight for our community,
01:42and fight for our issues.
01:43And I tell people all the time,
01:45I may have had different titles in my political career,
01:47from mayor to senator,
01:49but I am in this fight to make the promise of America
01:52work for everyone in every community.
01:54And having actually had to be a chief executive
01:56of one of America's more distressed cities,
01:59and have helped to turn it around now
02:00to our biggest economic development period,
02:03we're now the number one school system in America
02:05for Beat the Odds Schools.
02:06I have a record for driving an agenda
02:09that creates more opportunity for more people.
02:12And as President of the United States,
02:14that's the fight,
02:15because we've seen this country work really well
02:17in creating more and more wealth
02:19for a narrower and narrower band of people.
02:21We need to get back to a country
02:23that has shared prosperity
02:24and that deals with the persistent injustice
02:26that's affecting communities,
02:28often like the ones in my neighborhood,
02:30where you have infant mortality rates
02:32or maternal mortality rates
02:34the highest in the country
02:36for all women in our nation,
02:37but for black women,
02:38three, four times higher than white women,
02:40where you have a nation that we now have,
02:43our mass incarceration system
02:45has gotten so bad
02:46that we now have more African-Americans
02:48under criminal supervision
02:49than all the slaves in 1850.
02:52Now, these aren't just African-American issues.
02:54You can't incarcerate that much percentage
02:56of your population without hurting everyone.
02:59You can't deny economic opportunity to some
03:01without it hurting the economic well-being of all.
03:04And so for me, as president,
03:06we've got to start making this country work for everyone,
03:09and we will all benefit as a result,
03:11and that's the fight that I'm going to do.
03:13The guy who got into politics
03:14for communities that were left out and left behind
03:16is what I'm going to do as president of the United States
03:18is fight for those communities,
03:19whether they be rural neighborhoods or urban areas.
03:21Which three issues do you view
03:24as the most important heading into 2020?
03:27Well, I think that's a mistake people often think,
03:29is that you can somehow distill issues out from one another.
03:33We know that if you don't have access to health care,
03:37you as a kid are not going to have
03:39a great educational outcome.
03:40And we show this in Newark
03:42by kids that don't even have eyeglasses,
03:44having had their eyes tested,
03:45are not going to do well in school
03:46because they can't see the blackboard.
03:47Education, health care,
03:49even violence in our communities.
03:51You know, I know from one of my friends
03:53who worked in an IHOP,
03:55just having a shooting in front of that IHOP
03:56made them have to go from being a 24-hour IHOP
03:59to one that was closing in the evening,
04:01and women lost that extra shift,
04:03hurt ourselves in terms of jobs and economic opportunity.
04:06And so one of the things I think is the biggest thing
04:09that's ailing us in this country right now
04:11is that our politics is becoming more tribal
04:13where it's a zero-sum game,
04:15us versus them, we hate each other.
04:17I think the next leader is going to have to be somebody
04:19that can build the new majorities we need
04:21to get the things done actually through Congress
04:25that can make our communities better.
04:27We need a leader that can inspire us
04:29to not just recognize our common pain,
04:32but to create a new sense of common purpose
04:34in this country.
04:36And so I tell people all the time,
04:38don't make this election about one guy in one office.
04:40I know the highest polling issue in Democrats right now
04:43is just to beat Donald Trump.
04:44Well, that to me is a low aspiration.
04:47That's a floor.
04:48It's not a ceiling.
04:49It gets us out of a valley,
04:50but doesn't get us to the mountaintop.
04:52And a lot of the issues in communities like mine,
04:54we were facing them before Donald Trump.
04:56We need to get this country to understand
04:59that this has a chance of becoming a movement election,
05:02about something greater than we are in our individual parts.
05:06And so my goal in this race
05:08is not just to be about what I'm against,
05:10but trying to inspire people about what we can be for
05:12so that we have momentum going into this election,
05:15not just to recapture the White House,
05:17but to create the kind of new American majority we need
05:19to do everything from invest in our infrastructure,
05:22expand access to capital,
05:24lower the cost of college,
05:26deal with a healthcare system that is so broken
05:29that millions and millions of Americans
05:31are putting aside life-saving prescription drugs
05:33or going to the doctor because they can't afford it.
05:35This has got to be a movement election.
05:38First 90 days, what do you plan on doing?
05:39Oh, my hand, I'm a lefty.
05:42When it comes to writing, my hand will be very, very tired
05:45because you're going to see a whole bunch of executive orders
05:48doing things that we have the power to do.
05:50So on the environment,
05:51from re-enrolling us in the Paris Climate Accords
05:55to undoing the fuel efficiency standards that he has lowered
05:59or the methane and mercury rules,
06:01all the way to things I can do through executive order
06:03to expand women's access to healthcare.
06:06I'm going to create a White House Office of Reproductive Freedom
06:08and begin to coordinate between departments
06:10to make sure that women not only have access to contraceptive care,
06:14but also to make sure that they can have babies in ways like doula,
06:18access to doulas and more that have healthy children.
06:23I'm going to do things in my first days through my executive order pen
06:26to deal with environmental injustice.
06:29We've rolled back from holding polluters accountable
06:31that cause high asthma rates, high lead poisoning rates.
06:35I'm going to make sure that we go after those folks
06:37who are threatening our voting rights
06:39and start having a DOJ that actually stands up for civil rights,
06:43voting rights, LGBTQ rights.
06:46So a lot of people think that Congress is broken,
06:48but I'm going to tell people there's a lot of things that a president
06:50who comes from being a mayor knows that a strong executive
06:54can get things done in balancing the scales,
06:58creating more fairness and equality, and fighting for justice.
07:01And then I'm going to go to Congress.
07:03As one of the few senators that, in fact,
07:06the only major bipartisan piece of legislation
07:09that passed under this president
07:10was our First Step Act for Criminal Justice,
07:13which I led on the Democratic side with Dick Durbin,
07:16I've gotten things done through a broken Congress.
07:19I know we can still get big things done,
07:21like lowering prescription drugs costs,
07:24like having an infrastructure plan
07:26that puts thousands and thousands of people to work.
07:29I'm going to have a very aggressive first 100 days.
07:31I'm excited about it.
07:32Thank you so much.
07:34Thank you very much.
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