Politics & Elections

Discussing war, peace, policing, climate, immigration and surveillance at Rhode Island’s Democratic Presidential Candidate forum

Last night, the Rhode Island Anti-War Committee, Brown War Watch, East Bay Citizens for Peace and Rhode Island Rights hosted what might be the closest thing to a Democratic Presidential Debate to take place in Rhode Island. Supporters representing four of the many Democratic candidates running for the Presidency presented the views of the candidates on subjects relating to war,

October 2, 2019, 1:21 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

Last night, the Rhode Island Anti-War Committee, Brown War Watch, East Bay Citizens for Peace and Rhode Island Rights hosted what might be the closest thing to a Democratic Presidential Debate to take place in Rhode Island. Supporters representing four of the many Democratic candidates running for the Presidency presented the views of the candidates on subjects relating to war, policing, climate, immigration and government surveillance. There were also questions from the audience.

Present were Lauren Niedel for Bernie Sanders and Lauren Pothier for Elizabeth Warren. On screen, teleconferencing from home, were Melissa Mayer for Marianne Williamson and Ryan Healy for Tulsi Gabbard. The campaigns of Cory Booker and Andrew Yang had expressed interest, but pulled out at the last minute or were otherwise unable to participate.

Since the organizers were not interested in inviting more war-oriented presidential campaigns, the candidates invited to the forum tended to be on the more progressive side of the political spectrum.

Below is all the video from the debate, starting with the introductory comments:

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 01

Introductions/Question 1: War and Peace

The candidate proxies were originally going to do short introductions, before being asked the first question. Because the emcee asked his first question about the candidates’ positions on War and Peace, there was some confusion as to where introductory comments ended and answering the question began. So I combined the first two answers/statements from the candidates

Marianne Williamson (Melissa Mayer)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 02

Tulsi Gabbard (Ryan Healy)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 03

Bernie Sanders (Lauren Niedel)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 04

Elizabeth Warren (Lauren Pothier)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 05

Question 2: Immigration

Tulsi Gabbard (Ryan Healy)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 06

Elizabeth Warren (Lauren Pothier)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 07

Marianne Williamson (Melissa Mayer)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 08

Bernie Sanders (Lauren Niedel)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 12 Bernie Immigration

Question 3: Climate

Bernie Sanders (Lauren Niedel)

2019-10-01 Bernie Climate

Marianne Williamson (Melissa Mayer)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 10

Elizabeth Warren (Lauren Pothier)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 11

Tulsi Gabbard (Ryan Healy)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 12

Question 4: Policing

Elizabeth Warren (Lauren Pothier)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 12

Bernie Sanders (Lauren Niedel)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 20

Tulsi Gabbard (Ryan Healy)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 15

Marianne Williamson (Melissa Mayer)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 16

Question 5: Government Surveillance

Tulsi Gabbard (Ryan Healy)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 17

Marianne Williamson (Melissa Mayer)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 18

Elizabeth Warren (Lauren Pothier)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 19

Bernie Sanders (Lauren Niedel)

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 20

Questions from the audience

How does your candidate plan to address the gun violence crisis?

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 21

A question about American exceptionalism and the United States as a “world leader.”

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 22

A question about foreign affairs and trade policy, how do the candidates feel about multilateral agreements such as NAFTA and NATO?

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 23

A question about nuclear weapons

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 24

A question to the Warren campaign about accepting money from corporate and dark money sources.

2019-10-01 Dem Pres Debate Forum 25

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