Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III (MA-4, D)

rally at JFK park, take a moment now to silence your cell phones, you can join the online conversation with a hashtag JFK junior forum live and engage with our student-run Instagram on junior JFK forum for highlights behind the scenes take your seats now and join me in welcoming our guest and IOP Director Mark Kirin Rob Watson and Swati Srinivasan good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Institute of Politics welcome to the Kennedy School we are delighted to have you everyone here for a really interesting forum here at the JFK JFK youth forum with Congressman Joe Kennedy, so we have a great group of interlocutors with the Congressman from the Institute of Politics that I have the privilege of introducing to speak with Congressman Kennedy, first Rob Watson is a mid-career student here at the Kennedy School, he is also the program director student ation at the Institute of Politics, she graduated from college and education school and was a Peace Corps volunteer and we should applaud that a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, southeast of ASEAN, is from Ohio, near from Cleveland, Ohio, and has been very involved in the Policy Institute, including our policy program, where in her first year she worked on a proposed policy that was presented to Congressman Kennedy, thus representing the Policy Institute from various perspectives we thought you would be very familiar with a

congressman

, so we welcome you all here we welcome those of you who are thinking about the Kennedy School to guests from the community and now it's my pleasure to bring our distinguished invited someone who is known at the University as a law school graduate known at the Institute of Politics.

I serve on our Senior Advisory Committee committed to our policy work. He has represented the 4th District here in Massachusetts since 2012 in Congress and has had a career in public service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Dominic a Republic and as an Assistant District Attorney so please join me in welcoming Congressman Joe Kennedy, yes, thank you Congressman, for being here, welcome back, you're back in the house, thank you and before we go, my mom is here somewhere, I think if not, it's over. Hello, thanks for coming. I have a couple of cousins ​​here to thank the guys.

Good

congressman

. I had to start by welcoming him because we just found out behind the scenes that the congressman served in the Peace Corps in Puerto Plata and the province where he is from. family a Dominican Republic so if this would give a greeting to the people of my house in my garage Nathaniel good congressman I want to start talking about public service okay we are here at the school of government that bears the name of your family in an institute in the one who is a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of the University where he is on loan of his time with the Peace Corps to work in the Harvard Legal Aid Office to be assistant district attorney and now serving in Congress, what? what is your reflection on public service right now and its importance as we strive to inspire the next generation? to see you all here I'm delighted to be here with all of you and I look forward to turning this into a conversation I think the fastest we can look I think your best public service is about solving problems is about recognizing the challenges we face as a community as society and trying to find the tools and means to address them when it comes to government the best definition of government I've ever heard comes from my predecessor Barney Frank said government is simply the name of things the name we give to things that we do together people sit around a table trying to solve a problem and i think the divisions we see in our country right now and around the world are palpable and as tangible as they are the only way it gets resolved is by part of the people who roll up their sleeves and dive into it and I firmly believe that I had the tremendous opportunity and privilege in the course of the elections of 2018 to travel all over the country. from West Virginia to Indiana to Texas to Arizona to Pennsylvania Ohio Wisconsin Michigan Maine New Hampshire South Carolina Florida and many places in between and you talked to me I've spent six years in office and a Republican dominated body where if you wanted to do something , you had to have the Republicans not just endorsing a champion and so look through the challenges facing our country that are facing their communities and see it through their eyes and I didn't agree with a lot of it, but listen to their their recitation and their dedication to trying to serve those communities is really extraordinary and I think public service is about recognizing people who find themselves understanding that their perceptions and emotions in the way they see the world are just as valid as mine.

Finally I will say that no experience was more important to me than the time I spent in and your mother's hometown. When I was trying to figure out where they're going in the Peace Corps, I called Director Guerin and told him it was a good idea and he said yes, and honestly, I wasn't completely sold on it after that conversation, but there isn't a day in the one who is in this current position where he doesn't take advantage of that experience, so he's here right now. Glad to hear it. i suggested it thank you i had the honor of working with you and your team on a policy proposal to minimize pharmaceutical research and development costs with 20 of my classmates we realized the great complexity of political change at the national level i am an issue so deep so my question to you is how do you prioritize and achieve such a wide range of policies and interventions.

You literally picked one of the hardest ones, so it's good for you guys. I think they need to take a look at the challenges our country is facing and I think a big part of that is just being as in touch as possible with the communities that you represent. Some of the national challenges will be framed differently at the local level. the manifestos can be a little different or they can be a little different depending on where you are depending on whether some of the challenges you really have regarding access to health care are a rural community is an urban community viv done a lot of mental work and behavioral health 55% of counties in our country do not have a single practicing psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker 55% have zero, so we have a huge challenge managing access to mental health care here in Massachusetts that that gap is not one of them, but we still have significant challenges and so when it comes to looking at something as complex as pharmaceutical costs, trying to dig in and understand why which is honestly maybe the most frustrating part of my job right now because you can't, it's actually very hard to get a consensus answer as to why and that's part of, I think, a broken system that we have it's our divisive politics and the way in which Newt Gingrich's Contract for America thinking and the dismantling of congressional budgets the dismantling of nonpartisan research into the institution of Congress makes it harder for you to access and trust in the pure facts and when you're not, don't trust those few facts that you're open to tilt and turn and so you spend a lot of time trying to understand what the actual real answer is and then trying to build a solution around them when they do. finally and most importantly in that there are enormous forces that do not want that change it is not a matter of in some of these everyone agrees on what the problem is let's try to find a solution many of the big challenges we have to face there are voters who Voters are actively trying to make sure change doesn't happen, so building a coalition that can take it on is difficult, Congressman, I want to move on to national service for a moment, I know.

This is a topic near and dear to both of our hearts and there is much talk about national service being a defining civic rite of passage and cultural expectation in this country. We have seen many Democratic candidates talk about different ideas. to revitalize national service you come from a strong legacy of national service through Pro and through programs like AmeriCorps in the Peace Corps what do you see as the future of national service at the UN? Look, I think one of the challenges again that we face as a country is that a nation that we often don't have those shared experiences and one of the big aspects of that that you hear from my time in office from people who have served for a while the shared experiences that particularly the military services provided to people who come from different places with very different backgrounds but end up serving in the same unit and I have a cousin in the back there is a combat veteran from Afghanistan thanks for coming Chris McElveen, thanks for coming I'd be a mid-grader so conversations with people like Chris who can really share some of that experience Peace Corps is similar too there's some of my closest friends one of my friends closest to the Peace Corps is that I don't think I'm looking so I've been crazy with the conservative Republican who is from Louisiana now in Texas and he's a wonderful guy, a wonderful guy, a wonderful guy, oh, but he gives you the chance. opportunity to have these experiences bonding over shared experiences that you wouldn't otherwise have I believe deeply in the value of national service and the opportunity that national service also provides to take on some of these important ingrained challenges that we face, I think there are some of the questions about how to make that work for all Americans because there are some details that are important in balance, but building that sense of what our country is really understanding gained by giving opportunities for people to believe to learn that the threads we share our much more powerful and powerful than the differences we have three understanding that in a democracy you are actually supposed to have differences those differences should be celebrated not denigrated but there is a way to do it that is not only respectful but vibrant and you are not looking for unanimity oh god Don't let us end up in that place, but Or let's have that discussion, let's have that. debate let's get in it and be stronger and i think national service can provide that avenue not too long ago senator markey joined the forum at this stage some say your political views are very similar so my question is why you and why Now great question so I doubt anyone else has had that question in the audience so let me start baking and work on it how much worse does it have to get before you sit there and say hey you know why go out and run? office like literally literally when you're in a nation where tonight 500,000 people will be homeless 37 million people will go hungry a minimum wage job doesn't allow a family to afford a two bedroom apartment in any neighborhood in our nation i have some of the highest rates of maternal mortality in our country in the developed world here in the United States and therefore the highest rates of incarceration I was at an opioid task force meeting in western Massachusetts two weeks ago and i asked the sheriff who was there they in massachusetts run our county jails i said what is the approximate percentage of people in your jail tonight suffering from mental behavioral addiction nisour someone guess 30 eighty higher ninety alpha conference in about ninety percent and what richest and most powerful nation in the world has criminalized the disease? age and we locked her up and so respectfully how long do they have to tell you to wait I thought our democracy our participatory system said you know what if you have ideas if you've got energy, if you really want to try to change the system, get out there and run, and we won't put you barriers to doing so.

We welcome you to make the case. what you gain great you lose good last little story I'll tell you we had been all over the state on Saturday and Sunday when we announced Monday morning that we went to an intersection in Boston some of you out there in the city will know what it emits Malia and Massachusetts Avenue aka massive cast Boston Medical Center the ER is right around the corner that area has gotten a lot of attention because it is an area that now has a large homeless population and a large a population of people suffering from mental illness and addiction as we wait to make a right turn at the big exit off Highway 93 south was around 9:00 am. m.

Little by 9:00 Monday morning there's a bunch of probably 30 or 40 homeless people and at that intersection there were three or four of them I had a spoon a needle in the lighter and we were shooting heroin on the corner welcome to the Medical Centerfrom boston we went to the ER we went across the street to homeless health care but they have a center where people who are have a room there where if you inject on the street on that block you can go in and make sure that she doesn't overdose in the lobby and there's a woman a crowd of people coming out homeless and there's a woman who's crying and she's mad and she's mad and she's tried and here she's still where she is and she can't I can't believe a system that, despite his best efforts i have brought her here and she is crying and just venting so one of the reporters who is with her after i talked to her for a bit and heard a little bit of butter story. as we turn around to walk south and kamee health center he says look i know you care about these issues but you could work on these in the house you have to run for senate to be here to working on this i said true and fair but actually i've been here before visiting all these facilities and not a single camera or reporter showed up none of you there is value in a campaign there is value in showing up where people don't and listen voices that people don't hear and enforce our Commonwealth our country to confront the fact that even here a state with the largest employer is in health care the best medical system anywhere in the world is right here than we have 98 percent of people covered and we are still at the one of the largest intersections in our city they have a series of homeless people shooting heroin at 9:00 in the Monday morning morning and they don't know how to fix how much worse it has to get before someone says you know what let's try and you know what it starts with and that's a hard problem but you know where it starts it starts by just showing up and showing the dignity and the humanity that each of those people have and saying I'm not going to solve your problem tonight, but I can show you over the course of this campaign that you're going to get other people like any booth doesn't stop until one of those progressive communities in the richest nation in the world have no one outside of a major hospital and health center dedicated to the homeless in tears because the system has let her down i mean literally what my mom is here congressman but seriously and tell you they say don't run yes congressman you talked a little bit about structural barrie rs we are living in a difficult time right now, last week in the forum, Chief Professor Bergen and David King here talking about impeachment, what's your take on the current state of affairs in Washington and what do you read about the current situation with the president?

So with the caveat that I haven't seen what happened in the last 10 minutes so this is a tragedy and it's painful and I think not it's an event tonight where people came up and grabbed my arm saying thank you because he knows that yes, impeachment like me. I have that frustration. Yes, I believe the President of the United States has committed multiple impeachable crimes and he should be removed from office. a two-year investigation that a special counsel who is one of the most dedicated public servants in modern American history with this most talented team of investigators and extraordinary resources who had seven five different occasions where he believes there is substantial evidence to show that the president instructed justice and yet our political system allows him to smear and yet I mean if you can think of it this way and some of you probably know this without going into Muller and I think it should have been accused by what Muller found and I don't think it's a close decision if you actually read it and know what you're reading, which is part of the problem that you have to have read 448 pages and you have to know what you're really reading, but members of congress should know what they're reading, it's actually a bigger hurdle than you might think, after the director Muller appeared and testified and the press narrative that the president was going to walk the next day calls the president Ukraine the next day and what did he do he asked the head of a foreign government to investigate a political opponent to help a political Election campaigning for his own benefit is exactly what the mother's report found and the day he found out he wasn't going to be responsible for it he did it again and then after a whistleblower brought it up and after some people stepped forward and the White House starts at Stonewall, he does it again in broad daylight to say that if I continue to commit this crime, it's not really a crime because I won't be responsible and therefore it doesn't matter to literally prove what Richard Nixon said, to literally prove that he said and the difference is that when he said it last time, the scales tipped the American public and members of the president's party said that no and that hasn't happened yet.

I deeply respect my colleagues for their right to sit in those House and Senate seats. it's as legit as mine they spoke for their constituents they want an election but every once in a while in the store and not that often but every once in a while you're in those moments where you will be on trial and Congress will be on trial and i have a hard time understanding which one will be that argument on this and when you see an administration that is obstructing in order to poison politicians, well I understand the political strategy, you are also admitting that there is no substantive defense because if you thought there was one, you divulge the information and I hope that our political process can respond to the challenge that you are facing now you will have a question period for sure so we will bring it to the audience so that we have different microphones around the room so if people want to form a line if you want to make a question, you can hide if the lines we have four microphones placed in the room, so use them all. people come up to the microphone.

I want to quickly go over the House Rules. There's also a microphone up here and there. So quick. The House Rules. We ask all colleagues here asking questions to identify themselves. you see a short question your questions have to end with a question mark please PLEASE no media on the mic and we'll have on that soft web here to choose someone from the crowd hello congressman thank you for being here with us tonight my Me My name is Abigail Fenley. I am a freshman in college and I am from Hingham Massachusetts. Hey, congratulations, so you start challenging the senator, co-sponsor of the Newton Hill green, for his Senate seat in an election where voter priorities include climate action and plans to transition to fully renewable energy.

He was wondering if he could comment on his upcoming investment in mobile devices, a company that has spent more than a decade trying to promote climate change denial around the world. Great, so thanks for the question. an important one a couple of things one I'll put my environmental record in Congress against anyone's my record with the League of Conservation Voters lifetime record is a 95 I defy anyone to find a ti me where I haven't voted against any kind of bill that has a strong environmental movement or voted for those economic interests at all, you're not going to find one those assets are family assets that I've had for a long time Long before I was born, I exercised no control over them .

This is a problem that for me is going to affect my life for the rest. I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old and it's having an impact. their lives for the rest of them too Congress has to address it is one of the main reasons they set me apart from everyone else in this race and to end the filibuster because I was and am one of the original sponsors of the Green New Deal. I was at it from day one. I also took the promise of the dawn and if you want to keep the promise of what is the green new deal, Mitch McConnell won't let you do it. deny civil rights and the civil rights movement access to the civil rights s Act and delay implementation and a vote on it which is a deep ban and climate policy even if we win we can change the senate it will prohibit us from passing those for delivering on the promise of what really constitutes the Green New Deal.

So if you believe in that sense of urgency, if you believe in everything that you've just articulated and that this is the urgent moment that we have, then you're going to have to be in favor of structural reform that actually gives us the chance to do that. I am the only one in the race who has gone for it, so I will put my record against anything. I will put my positions against anything. You won't find a stronger advocate for the impact of what it means to me and my children than I appreciate the question hello congressman I'm matthew I'm a junior in college and I spent two summers teaching in the dominican republic in saamana es a beautiful place thank you so much my question actually has to do w ith the Dominican Republic, I was wondering what drew you most to your time there with the Peace Corps and how you used it to inspire your career in public service.

There's a lot there. The value of the sunscreen was probably as topless. so look i get it you get asked all the time if you've been a peace corps volunteer how do you sum up an experience that you might know has a massive transformation in about 30 seconds so i'll do my desktop but the best story that I can tell you is why I can share it. It's a story that I think many Peace Corps volunteers would have something similar to. He was back with Senator Mingo. I visited my host family and sent them to leave. He is coming.

In the back I had the Peace Corps office on a bus that's called a little minivan that's called a woof woof, which is an eight-seat minivan that has like 35 people hanging from it, yeah, and I was in the next to last row with a little backpack my lap and someone taps me on the shoulder and I turn around and it's an older man and he says go get the bus I was like see asking if I was a Peace Corps volunteer almost every day how did you know I was he looked like very good just oh and he said he never asked my name he never asked me why he was firm he didn't ask me any questions he just said that when I was a kid he lived on the outskirts of san in a mingo and a community that I don't have access to running water and a Peace Corps volunteer came and built a bunch of aqueduct to bring clean water to that town.

He thanked me for the contribution that that volunteer had made some 30 years before and the bus shortly after. he got off and I didn't. I never saw him again. The impact that that service has is going to long outlive any contribution that one of us makes and it will touch people in a way that they may not realize at the time, but in a time of division and resentment and frustration and pain a Worldwide, I can't think of a better solution than to show the world who we are as a nation, what we believe in, so the contribution that that gentleman made now over 40 years ago and I carry it with me every day because I think and i want to believe and i believe that doing things the right way people in need know that and that benefits all of us and the value of a little luck yeah hi my name is blake i am a sophomore here at the university just a few minutes ago you talked about your desire to abolish filibuster in our incredibly polarized times how do you respond to critics who say that abolishing filibuster will only increase those divisions and give Will it result in more sweeping changes every time the party affiliation of the Senate or party control shifts power in two ways is a great question and that was the question I wrestled with for a while before I decided hey you know what what do we need to do so it's a great question two things one the current system is not working that well right now and it's actually calcifying a point of view that ends up structurally preventing us from making the change we need on so many levels because be it gun violence or voting rights or the environment and the green new deal or whatever. otherwise add up the senators, the number of senators that could prevent progress from moving forward, if the numbers were a certain way, it's about 11 percent, they make up about 11 percent of the population, so I don't think that even you might not necessarily come down to those certain states, but what we've sown in partisan politics, the partisan tit-for-tat that we're in right now or a small minority of the country can inhibit the progress that the rest of the country is actually yelling for one two the first thing i would do first thing is beyond what we did out of the house called HR 1 which is a massive structural overhaul of our democracy everything from ending gerrymandering to restricting rights of voters to get money out of politics, packaged money, public financing, a wide variety of reforms that actuallythey strengthen our democracy and put our votes in power back into the hands of the people and if you do that you're right there is a risk that the pendulum will swing more to one side or the other but I am much more confident than if it really implement those structural reforms, the government that you get reflects the real will of the people because the one you have right now is not and so yes, if it happens that it makes our country much more responsive to what the people really want and the Republicans they end up winning control and it has to be unified control of the Senate of the House and the presidency for that pendulum to swing, but if they end up winning unified control of the Senate it means a Democratic party better do some soul-searching and find out how to win an election and similarly if the democrat party changes the republicans have to do some soul searching ching but what i think you have right now they chair them Three Democrats have won seven the popular vote for six of the last seven presidential campaigns for the Supreme Court Justices the conservative justices on the court had been confirmed by presidents who lost the popular vote, this time you have a president who lost the popular vote which has established the structure of a federal judiciary probably for as long as you or Literally as long as you are tall you could still be alive because of a calcified electoral college structure which itself is a relic of a racist system So how long can you sit back and say you know what that status quo is that is a calcification? it's a relic of that calcified system it's in denial that it provides to people across our country who need that help how long can you say it's okay last piece it's not surprising that those people I spoke about a moment ago on the street in flagpoles and casts, you don't have as many people coming and knocking on my door in Washington DC as some of the interests that our current democracy represents and so if you think everyone here ever counts Everyone is so big they didn't need to be a human being and that our country's promise is that we see you and hear you and stand behind you.

Those structures have to change and yes it is a concern but I have confidence that a Democratic Party one will pay attention to the will of its voters and two if not then we deserve to lose but you don't deserve to lose because some structure sits there and he says, well, we tilted the playing field and now we rig it. the game for 40 years so you can't win that's not democracy hello congressman first of all thanks for joining us tonight yes my name is mathew kenny i am a masters student at the graduate school of education before i came here i was a marjory teacher stoneman who was in high school after the shooting and my question to you is what do you think about mental health services and social emotional learning in schools matthew thank you for being here thank you for being a teacher thank you for posing this question and i have h and la chance to meet some of you, you may not have reformer students, but students that in your school i'm not sure there is a greater example of failure in our government than has been exemplified not just by what happened in Marjory Stoneman Douglas and now so many others, but for the response those students showed and for not accepting excuses or pablum from public servants. both sides of the aisle saying, well, that's great, but you're just kids, right? or yes, that's fine, but we have a second amendment, yes, there is a second amendment, there is also what we regulate there and the price of being able to carry a gun in this country should not be that children are terrified in schools and told shoot where you go to class when it comes to mental and behavioral health which is the core of your question the short answer is there must be a lot more the longer answer and this is a longer answer so we can continue for a while.

I'll be I'll shorten it unless people want me to participate in it and generally bigger a longer way a longer way back to the point I was making earlier about who has agency in today's democracy who doesn't whose voices are cut off If you think about the people who suffer from mental behavioral illnesses, there are very few people who end up coming to Washington to lobby on their behalf and speak for their interests. Many people who are mentally ill are also unable to make that trip because of their condition or two because it is expensive many of their families devote enormous resources to caring for those people rather than not having the surplus funds that go into that lobbying effort three different my associate was destined for behavioral illness is so still so strong that there is no if I ask everyone if there is anyone in their family I love the one who has suffered from cancer all hands in this room will go up if I ask if they have a loved one e suffered from mental illness, the answer will probably still be the same, but not every hand will raise a hand, so start peeling the layers off this.

I think I mentioned earlier that fifty-five percent of the counties in our country don't have a single practicing psychologist psychiatrist social worker that probably won't be resolved overnight, but it's emblematic of the fact that our society doesn't value that job for what it's worth the largest payer of mental health services in the country is Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health services are terrible I asked CMS, the government agency that oversees Medicaid, how much we reimburse for a visit mental health in any state, they said, we don't know how, you don't know, someone writes a check, you write a check. you have to know I said we don't know for the joint federal-state program we provide funding the states then they run it largely the way it's stated measure managing mental health is through block grants sorry it's through managed care those Managed care organizations end up being something of a black box, so even though a provider will get a bill in the will, that number doesn't really translate to us.

I know I can't write the law that says you have to and the guy laughed and said you don't get it this system is so structurally underfunded there's such huge debt and governors can't spend on deficits you're going to face every governor with a bill that is going to be in the hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars and none that will fill the need that all of a sudden they will have to meet and it will have to come from something else health care education taxes or transportation or van to raise your taxes no one wants to introduce that bill there's no way no one will take it because the first call you're going to get is from the governor's office saying don't get involved in that bill so I've been working with some colleagues in a structural review of our mental health process that is either long or deep down and is honestly taking much longer than I would have thought expected or expected but we are working on it and one of the pillars of that has to be early intervention to make sure that people get access to the method through identification of health workers in schools fight against this republican or conservative talking point that when you see an episode of mass violence that all of a sudden, because no sane person can do that, clearly that person is suffering from mental illness, it's just wrong and the empirically empirically false is not that the facts are already important to everyone, if not empirically false and that we as a society do a much better job of reaching out to people who are suffering from mental illness and saying, hey, that's okay because you know what my family needs to do and let's get the treatment it needs and force lawmakers to take a position on it and vote on it, but at this point we're not there yet, and ok, thanks. thanks hi my name is emily i'm saya we are ma4 members and we were also seniors at brookline high school. crisis and building unity within the government with a couple of fellow republicans exactly yeah it was very inspiring to me you know we're still working on that with the fellow republicans but you know I'm a little conflicted right now because you're running to overthrow to Ed Markey who co-authored the Green New Deal and has been a consistent climate champion with ambitious solutions for the change we need and so I'm not sure if that's the message more then our question to you and not as you just said not just children but as young people fighting for our future are you putting your political ambitions ahead of the future of our generations so i respectfully disrespect the contribution that senator marquis made this absolutely.

Before you look at my climate record, it's a very, very strong climate record and I'm proud of that record that I've developed, there are critical issues, including the Green New Deal, which as I said before. if you want to pass any of that, you have to be in favor of repealing the filibuster. I am the Marquis of the Center. No. You also talk about the impact for your future. I agree. and they project their future literally tomorrow literally tomorrow you're injecting heroin and fentanyl five to ten times a day because the half-life is unstable like half of what's less than half of what's in heroin so you're taking five to ten injections a day and playing russian roulette five or ten times they need a solution to literally save their lives now and i think Massachusetts deserves a senator who is fully committed to YES on climate and yes to those people en masse and casts and YES on affordable housing and yes on domestic violence and yes on metamaterial healthcare and yes and yes and yes and yes and if you can't then you know you better be running around this country trying to change Congress.

I told you I was at almost 20 last cycle states to do just that. I've raised millions of dollars campaigning for the people of this state and our nation to do just that, and I've articulated to you tonight part of structural reform that includes, by the way, getting dark money out of politics. that not everyone else in this race is in favor of including an end to filibuster, including an end to the electoral college, including term limits for Supreme Court justices, none of whom are in favor of Senator Markey and, respectfully, yes, I understand the impact of weather.

I have a record showing and you have a commitment from me saying it's a critically important part to our future you're also hearing from me there are other people out there who have an equal demand need for major structural change and that his job as a senator of the United States it has to be listening to those voices also because they have the same dignity that you and I do that I, who had a part and that my children also share, and as a senator you can do that and I think that when it comes to those things, listen to those concerns raise them in Washington achieve that change and change the policy yes respectfully I think I can do a better job and I challenge you to look at those policies that I laid out and ask yourself if unless the candidates in this race fit those who fit to those policies, if any of them can actually live up to what you say.

Hi Congressman, I'm Duncan, a freshman from Philly, what's going on? I had the extraordinary honor of campaigning with the mayor, unfortunately, right after that Super Bowl and I did. He was kind enough to present me with an eagle hat. I was kind enough to congratulate him on his bravery. to grease all the light poles with Crisco to make sure his fans didn't climb on the light pole after winning the super bowl we've done it many times here it's just a little old but it's good I think you're pretty fun. have you voted do you register to vote here still philadelphia is perfect there we go or pennsylvania so you talked earlier about the need to hold the president accountable for his crimes and his abuses of office in the form of impeachment yes and i've been thinking about lately this is the only issue that I think the idea that we should hold him accountable is that it's hard for me to see a scenario where the president is really held accountable in a strong and meaningful way for what he's done because even if he's impeached on camera, which is certainly possible , if not likely.

It's hard for me to see how he would be removed from his seat in the Senate because even if all forty-five Democrats in the Senate, as well as the two independents, voted to remove him. m would still need 20 senators republicans to vote the same and probably not likely exactly yes so my question to you is is there any foreseeable future where trump is actually held accountable for his actions in a practically meaningful way yes and look i must I can say from this point on that I share the same concerns that I don't see a way to get 20 Republican senators to vote to remove them from office.their charges.

Having said all that, we have seen a dramatic change not only in public opinion. but the facts that have changed public opinion in a week and you have a White House that is obstructing because they clearly don't want any more information to come out so I think it's up to us in our system I would like to say Democrats and Republicans and with Good luck, they'll join us in the system to get the information so he can be held accountable. I think there's value even if he can't get twenty in the Senate. I think so. it's value both now and history point of view on the saying that when there was credible evidence that the president committed multiples and Peach of all crimes, his system at least tried to hold him accountable even if he didn't, but at some point if you believe in our democracy and I do as defiant as it is right now, one would like to think that political will will allow us to make these adjustments that are necessary to ensure that no one is in fact above the law and if that means you have to force this system even if it fails right now if you have to force that to show what that failure is, then you're much better off doing that and failing than saying you know what we're not sure we can get the votes, so we're not even going to address the last point.

I understand that someone who campaigns on many of those swing seats I understand the vulnerability that a number of our colleagues face casting some of these votes. They wanted districts where Donald Trump is still popular and I respect that I respect their opinion and I think Speaker Pelosi has done well to move this along at the pace that the caucus is going, I was also a prosecutor myself and legal analysis is sometimes a thing complicated, sometimes it is not and volume 2 of the Muller report consists of three basic sections, the first is a very brief description of what the law actually is and for someone to be convicted of a crime, they must meet the elements of the offense items on our checklist if you meet all of them you want each one to be proven beyond the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt someone has been convicted you have to eliminate all the small items as I recall there are three items for obstruction of justice, the second major point or part is a recitation of ten separate instances with a special counsel investigation that it is believed that there may have been obstruction and they apply the facts as they found them to the law in five of them they say they can't prove it in all five when they say you could in a couple of those five they don't tell you that you could word I think it's page 97 all the legal analysis it is on one page one page there is substantial evidence to show one substantial evidence to show two substantial evidence to show three what the special counsel does not write there was substantial evidence to show that he committed a but he heard that some other colleagues actually asked the special counsel during his time on Capitol Hill if one plus one plus one equals three because that's what he wrote and yes it was cool shortening.

I don't agree with his analysis, but I don't necessarily agree with him either, director. I do not know what that means. These are his words, so if there is a real problem, tell me what the real problem is. Otherwise I am quoting. her words and the last part of it, which is the only part I can say, okay, well that's what they found now, there are constitutional defenses that the president could make because of his position and the special privileges given to that office that you could say that some of this isn't working, they take all the affirmative defenses raised by their President's Council and they throw out every single one of them, so if you're at that point and you think you're this investigator thinks there's substantial evidence proving the president obstructed justice from an investigation into whether the president over asked profited from foreign interference in an election he called out directly on national tv literally what else are you supposed to do say what could it be him a choice better luck next time not for nothing thats what a bomb administration did there was no evidence he at this point was the obstruction ion at that point, but they looked and said, hey, we can go public John Brennan, CIA directors at that point went to McConnell and all of a sudden the Russians interfered in the election and he said go public with this, I'll tell him it's a partisan witch hunt so they didn't do it because my understanding that I don't want to didn't come from them but I understand there was a risk in that backlash we thought they thought we were going to win you want to place that bet twice what do you want ? at least show you know what our system matters and if someone is going to file i would say you are blatantly violating the law over and over and over again what else are you supposed to do hello congressman thanks for being here my name is luke i'm a college student Sophomore year in college after Senator Elizabeth Warren announced her candidacy to be the nominee you were one of the first elected officials to endorse her so as a fellow supporter of our next president I would love to know why you chose to endorse him and if and how he could have bolstered his confidence in her over the last eight months of the campaign is a big question.

I had the honor of featuring her in her Lawrence ad. I would say that she has done nothing to boost my confidence. in her for the past eight months because I had a lot of confidence in her to begin with. I have had the extraordinary privilege of knowing Senator Warren for the past decade. I met my wife in her class with all due respect to everyone. the other teachers here she was an amazing teacher she was the toughest teacher i've ever had hands down she's afraid of kravid everyone but what an amazing experience she was with her she was our first year contracts teacher she so i took bankruptcy law just to take another class with her not because i was interested in a complete bankruptcy but just because of what that intellectual experience was and how amazing it was more than anything and what i see really going on right now the kind of unread or unwritten part of the campaign there are about 80 quizzes 80 students in his class he asked every student in every class a question and almost every person got it wrong the question was just brutal and eah but i still got I married so like her Rafer at least that worked what it did was it won't put you in your place but it got you in a place which is not always altruism not necessarily not altruism it's the first thing you think of when you think of a harvard law student always, um, he made his class lean on the person next year and he challenged every student in that class because he actually believed that if they pushed you you'd be better and that she wasn't going to let you get away with it oh i'm not going to be on call this week so you can sit there and know check your email she allowed roommates there are blackberrys iphones they didn't exist it was a long time. a while ago um but she pushed you really but she pushed you really hard because she thought you were totally on board and that when you came out in the back at the other end of that class and the other end of that semester you actually knew something that you didn't know going in and you understood how these pieces fit together and she knew that if her students were challenged, they could rise to the occasion and I see the same impetus in her policy debates in the way she runs that campaign.

She's presenting her interpretation that I think is correct about structural inequalities. in our society and forcing us to fight with them and say look you might have a different idea but here is my take on the debate and I am confident enough in my plan to say debate and you can ask some questions but I got answers , but we will participate because you know what this is about and I will check that we will force you you will not be able to look away you will not be able to escape from something like hey my dog ​​ate my homework I'm a little sick it's snowing whatever I'm not going to cut it but a good faith effort to meet that challenge that's what this is supposed to be and I can't think of a more important moment than for our country to really be challenged in that way and to see people respond to that and say yes you may not agree with everything deep down but thank you for believing in a country that truly believes in itself and I believe we are going to be a great president for the last time one yes congressman thank you very much.

I am a long time constituent and actually had the pleasure of working in your district office from time to time during college and grad school. philosophical tone, you've talked a lot today about everyone needs a voice, everyone needs to be heard, democracy and I wonder what people are listening to and if our engagement in politics trickles down to the person, not person to person, you have the blame and what if whatever role civics has in the future in remedying this national disinterest in debate and this culture of hearing what you want to hear it's always the last question and it's great so look I think a great part of a big part of any public service job is trying to communicate back and forth with the public and one of the challenges is yes trying to meet people where they are and one way to do that is literally in your pocket, the challenge is how do I get them to pay attention. something in your pocket and that's not really 10 seconds and it better be quick and concise and fun or whatever democracy isn't always fast and 15 fun i think the book is in the hole we're in technologies allow It's hard for any politician to fight that, but I will say that's one of the reasons, in part, that's one of the reasons we do office hours, which is why I represent 34 cities in the city south and west West Boston um, over the course of my term I'm going to make it go to each of those cities and have just in city hall or public safety office library yeah library library and just hang a little bit of shingles a whoever wants to come in and talk about whatever you want to talk about you guys may be too young for a west wing some of you not cool thank you they have that big block of cheese day where you can come and talk about whatever you want to talk about how do we do the day from the big block of cheese, no cheese, um, come on, just ask whatever.

I want to ask and if it's something personal to you and Medicare, fine, we have caseworkers there to work with you and Medicare, but if it's a philosophical question about the Kurds or China or education policy or gun violence or whatever, Then I'll do it. to give you the best answer that I can but part of it is yes it's extremely shocking to me to hear those stories but part of it we do it even if no one shows up and sometimes very few people do but just so we can say that. we did it so that hopefully my constituents know that it's not just a job they see in Washington and someone ends up running around offices and they know ribbon cutting, but I pledge to you that your voice really matters and I'm going to have to pay I want to pay attention I'll have to pay attention doesn't mean that we're going to agree on everything or that it will influence each of them the vote I cast, but it's to show the best I can that I'm doing everything possible to fulfill that promise that you talk about, many of my fellow Republicans do the same thing and I think one of the challenges that we have to get to is recognizing that even in these massively polarized times, if you take the media spin off of any of this, actually we agree on so much more than people think that it's not really everything and it's not one of the big issues of the day but a terrible thing we do a lot more but it's also up to us to try to getting to last because I'm late for my next thing, which is sad, but the next thing I have to do for all of you in the crowd, may I assume? almost all of you are going to be able to vote no almost all of you eh look I voted in favor there you go this for students launching this election you are going to quote it you are going to be static it is your vote you are going to sign it because you don't but this moment in which we are more than anything if you agree with what I said that I do Disagree with what I said tonight or I eliminate the Senate race.

Every other race you're looking at in this country is at a tipping point and you all have it in your hands to send a message to every other person in America. America and everyone else around the world about what kind of nation we are and what kind of country we will be and what it means to be a part of the United States in this moment of world leadership emptiness and that's literally what it is in your hands in 13 months and my god i hope you take it and i hope you follow it and i hope you recognized it well it may seem like you're one little vote it doesn't matter that much one little vote plus one little vote this little vote matters so much and this choice could not be more critical because five more years of this is very hard to come back from that is one thing to say and yes they will bepartisan for a second here it's one thing to say the system wasn't working we tried a way it didn't work we went back another thing is to say hey you know enough people thought this way was right we did it again if you agree with him that's fine and if you would agree with the policies but go ahead with this administration well support him if you think our country our people our planet deserves a different direction make that voice heard we count with you.

I'm grateful you're here tonight, thank you.