Democratic Presidential Debate in Rhode Island: Views on War, Policing, Climate, Immigration and Government Surveillance

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:

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