Elizabeth Warren is the top polling candidate in tonight’s June 26, 2019 Democratic debate. That’s why she’s front and center on the stage – a space reserved for the person who is polling the highest. She’s known for her debating prowess, so she’s going to have some great quotes tonight. Here are Warren’s best quotes during the Democratic debate. This will be updated live as the debate airs.
Warren got the first question of the night. She was asked about people who worry about the riskiness of her ideas. “Who is this economy really working for? It’s doing great for thinner and thinner slice at the top. It’s doing great for giant drug companies It’s not doing great for people who are trying to get a prescription filled… It’s doing great for giant oil companies…just not for the rest of us who are watching climate change bear down upon us… When you have an economy that does great for those that have money and isn’t doing great for everyone else, that is corruption plain and simple…”
She got resounding applause for her response.
When asked if she was picking winners or losers, she said there was too much consolidation in industries today. ” It helps constrict real innovation and growth… We had the laws out there for a long time to be able to fight back. What’s been missing is courage … in Washington to take on the giants… It has been far too long that the monopolies have been making the campaign contributions…making sure their influence is heard and felt in every single decision that gets made in Washington.”
Warren vowed to call out monopolies that hurt the people and stand up against them.
Warren was then asked a third question. “Giant corporations have exactly one loyalty and that is to profits. … Start with a place where there’s a real need. There’s going to be a real worldwide need for … our research and development on green energy going forward. Then we need to say any corporation can come and use that work…but they have to be manufactured right here in the United States of America.”
She then said we should sell that green technology around the world. “We can do this.”
Warren was then asked about Medicare for All. “Yes I’m with Bernie on Medicare for All… One of the number one reasons (families go broke) is the cost of healthcare, medical bills… There are a lot of politicians who say, ‘Oh it’s just not possible.’ What they’re really telling you is they just won’t fight for it. Healthcare is a basic human right and I’ll fight for basic rights.”
Warren brought up how insurance companies got $23 billion in profits. “We have a giant industry that wants our healthcare system to stay the way it is… It’s not working for families but sure as heck is working for (them)… It’s time for families…to come first.”
Warren said she’d make sure every woman had access to the full range of reproductive healthcare services. “I will add on that, it’s not enough for us to expect the courts to protect us… We now have an America where most people support Roe v. Wade, we need to make that a federal law.”
Warren was asked about gun control.
“The single hardest question I’ve gotten (from a little boy and a little girl)… When you’re President, how are you going to keep us safe? … Gun violence is a national health emergency and we need to treat it like that… We can do universal background checks, we can ban weapons of war, and we can double down on research and find out what really works… We need to treat this like a virus that’s killing our children… We need to treat it like a serious research problem, which we have not done.”
She said we need to make real change whether politically popular or not.
When asked what she’d do about Mitch McConnell and if she has a plan, she said she does.
“We are a democracy, and the way a democracy is supposed to work is the will of the people matters. We have for far too long had a Congress…that dismissed what people care about… Sure, I want to see us get a Democratic majority in the Senate, but short of that…the fight still goes on. It starts in the White House and it needs (to make sure) everyone energized in 2020 stays on the front lines come January 2021. … We have to make this Congress reflect the will of the people.”
Warren ended by saying: “I had a dream growing up and my dream was to be a public school teacher. But by the time I graduated from high school…my family didn’t have the money… But I had my chance, it was a $50 a semester commuter college… It opened my life. I am in this fight because I believe that we can make our government, we can make our economy, we can make our country work … for everyone. And I promise I will fight for you as hard as I fight for my own family.”