Martin O`Malley in CNN 2015 Democratic primary debate
On Budget & Economy:
Economic injustice is tearing our country apart
Thanks to President Obama, our country has come a long way since the Wall Street crash of 2008. Our country's doing better, we are creating jobs again. But we elected a president, not a magician, and there is urgent work that needs to be done right now.
For there is a deep injustice, an economic injustice that threatens to tear our country apart, and it will not solve itself. Injustice does not solve itself.
What I'm talking about is this, our middle class is shrinking. Our poor families are becoming poorer, and 70 percent of us are earning the same, or less than we were 12 years ago. We need new leadership, and we need action.
The sort of action that will actually make wages go up again for all American families.
Our economy isn't money, it's people. It's all of our people, and so we must invest in our country.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Budget & Economy:
Fight banks that are too big to jail & too big to fail
Q: How would you be different than President Obama's administration?O'MALLEY: I would follow through on the promise that the American people thought we made as Democratic Party, to protect the Main Street economy from recklessness on Wall Street.
I would push to separate out these too-big-to-jail, too-big-to-fail banks, and put in place Glass-Steagall, a modern Glass-Steagall that creates a firewall so that this wreckage of our economy can never happen again.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Civil Rights:
Settled lawsuit with ACLU about race-based arrests
Q: In one year 100,000 arrests were made in your city of 640,000 people. The ACLU, the NAACP sued the city, and the city settled, saying a lot of arrests were without probable cause.O'MALLEY: The key word is the word "settle."
Arrests peaked in 2003, but they declined every year after that as we restored peace in our poorer neighborhoods so that people could actually walk and not have to worry about their kids or their loved ones being victims of violent crime.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Corporations:
Separate casino banks from good ones: support Glass-Steagall
We raised the minimum wage, passed the living wage, invested in infrastructure, went four years in a row without a penny's increase in college tuition. We need to separate the casino, speculative, mega-bank gambling that we have to insure with our money,
from the commercial banking, reinstating Glass-Steagall. [Moderator explanation]: Glass-Steagall is the Depression-era banking law repealed in 1999 that prevented commercial banks from engaging in investment banking and insurance activities.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Crime:
My zero-tolerance policy didn't cause Baltimore riots
Q: Baltimore exploded in riots and violence in April. The current top prosecutor blames your zero tolerance policies for sowing the seeds of unrest.O'MALLEY: I believe what she said was that there's a lot of policies that have led to this unrest.
Q:
When she was asked which policies, she named zero tolerance.
O'MALLEY: Arrests had actually fallen to a 38-year low in the year prior to the tragic death of Freddie Gray [whom the Baltimore police arrested for carrying a switchblade; Gray was killed
violent, addicted, and abandoned city in America. And we put our city on a path to reduce violent crime. We've saved over 1,000 lives in Baltimore in the last 15 years of people working together. And the vast majority of them were young & poor & black.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Crime:
Black Lives Matter, like in Baltimore
The Black Lives Matter movement is making is a serious point, and that is we have undervalued black lives. When I ran for Mayor of Baltimore, and we were burying over 350 young men every year, most young, and poor, and black, I said that if we were
burying white, young, poor men in these numbers, we would be marching in the streets and there would be a different reaction. Black lives matter, and we have a lot of work to do to reform our criminal justice system, and to address race relations.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Education:
Don't burden our kids with massive college debt
Our economy isn't money, it's people. It's all of our people, and so we must invest in our country, and the potential of our kids to make college a debt free option for all of our families, instead of settling our kids with a lifetime of crushing debt.
The future is what we make of it. We are all in this together. The question in this election is whether you and I still have the ability to give our kids a better future. I believe we do, that is why I am running for president.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Environment:
Green revolution: 100% clean electric grid by 2050
SANDERS: The only way we really transform America and do the things that the middle class and working class desperately need is through a political revolution.WEBB: Bernie, I don't think the revolution's going to come.
Q: You don't hear a lot of Democratic presidential candidates talking about revolution. What do you mean?
SANDERS: What I mean is that we need to have one of the larger voter turnouts in the world, not one of the lowest.
What we need is a green energy revolution. We need to move America to a 100 percent clean electric grid by 2050 and create 5 million jobs along the way.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Environment:
Support sustainable green building, architecture and design
Our nation must solve this one. So I put forward the plan that would extend the investor tax credits for solar and for wind. If you go across Iowa, you see that
30 percent of their energy now comes from wind. We're here in Las Vegas, one of the most sustainable cities in America, doing important things in terms of green building, architecture and design.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Families & Children:
I'm a husband and a father, and an effective leader
My name is Martin O'Malley, former Mayor of Baltimore, former governor of Maryland, a life long democrat, and most importantly, a husband, and a father. My wife Katie and I have four great kids, Grace, and Tara, and William and Jack.
And, like you, there is nothing we wouldn't do to give them healthier and better lives. After 15 years of executive experience, I have learned how to be an effective leader.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Families & Children:
Don't penalize working women for having kids
The genius of our nation is that we find ways in every generation to include more of our people more fully in the economic life of our country, and we need to do that for our families, and especially so that women aren't penalized in having to drop
out of the workforce. My wife, Katie, is here with our four kids. And, that was a juggle when we had little kids and keeping jobs and moving forwards. We would be a stronger nation economically if we had paid family leave.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Gun Control:
The game is rigged in court, against gun victims
Sandy and Lonnie Phillips are here, and their daughter was one of those who lost their lives in Aurora [where a 2012 movie theater shooting killed 12 people].
They went to court, and in this case, you want to talk about a rigged game. A man sold 4,000 rounds of military ammunition to this person that killed their daughter, and he didn't ask where it was going.
Not only did the case get thrown out, they were slapped with $200,000 in fees because of the way the NRA gets its way in Congress.
It's time to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Homeland Security:
Snowden fled to Russia so it's obvious what he is
Q: Is Edward Snowden [the federal employee who released thousands of NSA documents] a traitor or a hero?O'MALLEY: Snowden put a lot of Americans' lives at risk. Snowden broke the law. Whistleblowers do not run to Russia and try to get
protection from Putin. If he really believes that, he should be back here.
CLINTON: He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Immigration:
Support DACA and DAPA, and comprehensive reform
Q [to Clinton]: Governor O'Malley wants to open up Obamacare to millions of undocumented immigrants and their children. Do you?CLINTON: Well, I want to make sure every child gets health care. I want to open up the opportunity for immigrants to be able
to buy into the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. To go beyond that--it would be very difficult to administer
O'MALLEY: I think what you've heard is some of the old thinking on immigration reform, and that's why it's gridlocked.
Our country is stronger in every generation by the arrival of new American immigrants. That is why I have put out a policy for comprehensive immigration reform, that is why I would go further than President Obama has on DACA, and DAPA. I am for a
generous, compassionate America that says we're all in this together.
OnTheIssues note: DACA is "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals"; DAPA is "Deferred Action for Parents of Americans"; both would prevent deportation of illegal immigrants.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Immigration:
In-state college tuition for immigrants, not free tuition
Q [to Hillary Clinton]: Governor O'Malley and Senator Sanders want to provide in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants. Where do you stand?
CLINTON: My plan would support any state that takes that position, and would work with those states and encourage more states to do the same.
O'MALLEY: And a the immigrant haters like some that we've heard, like Donald Trump, that carnival barker in the Republican party, tried to mischaracterize it as free tuition for illegal immigrants. But, we took our case to the people when
it was petitioned to referendum, and we won with 58 percent of the vote. The more our children learn, the more they will earn, and that's true of children who have yet to be naturalized, but will become American citizens.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On Principles & Values:
Democrats don't denigrate women or immigrants or Muslims
What you heard tonight was a very different debate than from the sort of debate you heard from the two presidential Republican debates. You didn't hear anyone denigrate women, you didn't hear anyone make racist comments about new
American immigrants, you didn't hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious belief. What you heard instead was an honest search for the answers that will move our country forward.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On War & Peace:
Don't search world for monsters to destroy, like Iraq War
Q: Secretary Clinton voted to authorize military force in Iraq, supported more troops in Afghanistan. Is she too quick to use military force?O'MALLEY: No commander in chief should take the military option off the table, even if most agree it
should be the last option. What disturbed people so much was leading us into Iraq under false pretenses and telling us there were weapons of mass destruction there was one of the worst blunders in modern American history.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
On War & Peace:
No-fly zone in Syria too hard to enforce; stay out entirely
Q: Does Hillary Clinton want to use military force too rapidly?SANDERS: She is talking about a no-fly zone in Syria, which I think is dangerous.
O'MALLEY: I would not be so quick to pull for a military tool.
I believe that a no-fly zone in Syria, at this time would be a mistake. You have to enforce no-fly zones, and I believe, especially with the Russian air force in the air, it could lead to an escalation.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Oct 13, 2015
Page last updated: Dec 07, 2018