CLINTON: You know, it's always the Republicans or their sympathizers who say, "You can't have paid leave, you can't provide health care." They don't mind having big government to interfere with a woman's right to choose and to try to take down Planned Parenthood. They're fine with big government when it comes to that. I'm sick of it. We can do these things. We should not be paralyzed by the Republicans and their constant refrain, "big government this, big government that," that except for what they want to impose on the American people. I know we can afford it, because we're going to make the wealthy pay for it. That is the way to get it done.
SANDERS: Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little? No, I don't.
Q: Is there anybody else on the stage who is not a capitalist?
CLINTON: When I think about capitalism, I think about the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country to do that. I don't think we should confuse what we have to do every so often in America, which is save capitalism from itself. But we would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class of the world.
SANDERS: I think everybody is in agreement that we are a great entrepreneurial nation. We have to support small and medium-sized businesses. But you can have all of the growth that you want and it doesn't mean anything if all of the new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent.
CLINTON: I represented Wall Street, as a senator from New York, and I went to Wall Street in December of 2007--before the big crash that we had--and I said, "cut it out! Quit foreclosing on homes! Quit engaging in these kinds of speculative behaviors." I took on the Bush administration for the same thing. My plan would have the potential of actually sending the executives to jail. Nobody went to jail after $100 billion in fines were paid.
SANDERS: In my view, Congress does not regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress. And we have gotta break up these banks.
O'MALLEY: Madam Secretary, you are not for Glass-Steagall. You are not for putting a firewall between this speculative, risky shadow banking behavior. I am, and the people of our country need a president who's on their side, willing to protect the Main Street economy from recklessness on Wall Street.
CLINTON: No. I think that we have the opportunity through the states that are pursuing recreational marijuana to find out a lot more than we know today. I do support the use of medical marijuana, and I think even there we need to do a lot more research so that we know exactly how we're going to help people for whom medical marijuana provides relief. So, I think we're just at the beginning, but I agree completely with the idea that we have got to stop imprisoning people who use marijuana. Therefore, we need more states, cities, and the federal government to begin to address this so that we don't have this terrible result of a huge population in our prisons for nonviolent, low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana.[1]
CLINTON: I have been on the forefront of dealing with climate change, starting in 2009, when President Obama and I crashed a meeting with the Chinese and got them to sign up to the first international agreement to combat climate change that they'd ever joined.
Q: Are you referring to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen?
CLINTON: When we met in Copenhagen in 2009 and, literally, President Obama and I were hunting for the Chinese, going throughout this huge convention center, because we knew we had to get them to agree to something. Because there will be no effective efforts against climate change unless China and India join with the rest of the world. They told us they'd left for the airport; we found out they were having a secret meeting. We marched up, we broke in, we said, "Let's sit down and talk about what we need to do." And we did come up with the first international agreement that China has signed.
CLINTON: Well, you know, everybody on this stage has changed a position or two. If you are learning, you're going to change your position. I never took a position on Keystone until I took a position on Keystone. But I have been on the forefront of dealing with climate change, starting in 2009,
SANDERS: [If I'm elected], we are going to have medical and family paid leave, like every other country on Earth.
O'MALLEY: In our state, we actually expanded family leave. We would be a stronger nation economically if we had paid family leave.
CLINTON: We have to stand up to his bullying, and in Syria, it is important to provide safe zones so that people are not going to have to be flooding out of Syria at the rate they are I think it's important that the US make it clear to Putin that it's not acceptable for him to be in Syria bombing people on behalf of Assad, and we can't do that if we don't take more of a leadership position, which is what I'm advocating.
CLINTON: Well, actually, I have been very consistent. Over the course of my entire life, I have always fought for the same values and principles, but, like most human beings--including those of us who run for office--I do absorb new information. I do look at what's happening in the world. Take the trade deal. I did say, when I was secretary of state, three years ago, that I hoped it would be the gold standard. It was just finally negotiated last week, and in looking at it, it didn't meet my standards. My standards for more new, good jobs for Americans, for raising wages for Americans. And I want to make sure that I can look into the eyes of any middle-class American and say, "this will help raise your wages." And I concluded I could not.
SANDERS: Bernie Sanders has a D-minus voting rating from the NRA. Back in 1988, I told the gun owners of Vermont that I supported a ban on assault weapons. I have strongly avoided instant background checks, doing away with this terrible gun show loophole. And I think we've got to move aggressively at the federal level.
Q: Is Bernie Sanders tough enough on guns?
CLINTON: No, not at all. We have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. This has gone on too long and it's time the entire country stood up against the NRA. The majority of our country supports background checks, and even the majority of gun owners do.
CHAFEE: No, no. As long as you're getting a warrant, I believe that under the Fourth Amendment, you should be able to do surveillance. In the PATRIOT Act, section 215 started to get broadened too far, so I would be in favor of addressing and reforming section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Q: Secretary Clinton, do you regret your vote on the Patriot Act?
CLINTON: No, I don't. I think that it was necessary to make sure that we were able after 9/11 to put in place the security that we needed. And it is true that it did require that there be a process. What happened, however, is that the Bush administration began to chip away at that process. And I began to speak out about their use of warrantless surveillance and the other behavior that they engaged in. We always have to keep the balance of civil liberties, privacy and security. It's not easy in a democracy, but we have to keep it in mind.
CHAFEE: The courts have ruled that what he did was say the American government was acting illegally.
CLINTON: He broke the laws of the United States. He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower. He could have raised all the issues that he has raised. And I think there would have been a positive response to that.
Q: Should he do jail time?
CLINTON: He stole very important information that has unfortunately fallen into a lot of the wrong hands. So I don't think he should be brought home without facing the music.
O'MALLEY: Snowden put a lot of Americans' lives at risk.
SANDERS: I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American people to the degree in which our civil liberties and our constitutional rights are being undermined.
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.
CLINTON: I have been very consistent. But I do absorb new information. I do look at what's happening in the world.
COOPER: Just for the record, are you a progressive, or are you a moderate?
CLINTON: I'm a progressive. But I'm a progressive who likes to get things done. And I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground, and I have proved that in every position that I've had, even dealing with Republicans who never had a good word to say about me, honestly. But we found ways to work together on everything from reforming foster care and adoption to the Children's Health Insurance Program. So I have a long history of getting things done, rooted in the same values I've always had.
CLINTON: Well, I think that's pretty obvious. I think being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we've had up until this point, including Pres. Obama.
Q: Is there a policy difference?
CLINTON: Well, there's a lot that I would like to do to build on the successes of Pres. Obama, but also, as I'm laying out, to go beyond. And that's in my economic plans, and how I would deal with a full range of issues that I've been talking about throughout this campaign.
Q: This year has been the year of the outsider in politics. Why should Democrats embrace an insider like yourself?
CLINTON: Well, I can't think of anything more of an outsider than electing the first woman president, but I'm not just running because I would be the first woman president. I'm running because I have a lifetime of experience in getting results and fighting for people, fighting for kids, for women, for families, fighting to even the odds.
CLINTON: I fully support Social Security. And the most important fight we're going to have is defending it against continuing Republican efforts to privatize it.
Q: Do you want to expand it?
CLINTON: I want to enhance the benefits for the poorest recipients of Social Security. We have a lot of women on Social Security, particularly widowed and single women who didn't make a lot of money during their careers, and they are impoverished, and they need more help from the Social Security system. And I will focus on helping those people who need it the most. And of course I'm going to defend Social Security. I'm going to look for ways to try to make sure it's solvent into the future. And we also need to talk about health care at some time, because we agree on the goals, we just disagree on the means.
SANDERS: We should put together a coalition of Arab countries who should lead the effort. But I do not support American ground troops in Syria.
CLINTON: Well, nobody does. I agree completely. We don't want American troops on the ground in Syria. I never said that. What I said was we had to put together a coalition, and that it should include Arabs, people in the region.
SANDERS: She is talking about a no-fly zone in Syria, which I think is a very dangerous situation. The president is trying very hard to thread a tough needle here, and that is to support those people who are against Assad, against ISIS, without getting us on the ground there.
CLINTON: We are already flying in Syria just as we are flying in Iraq. I have advocated that the no-fly zone--which of course would be in a coalition--be put on the table, to figure out what leverage we have to get Russia to the table. Diplomacy is not about the perfect solution; it's about how you balance the risks.
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The above quotations are from CNN Democratic primary debate Five candidates in Las Vegas, October 13, 2015. Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Hillary Clinton. Click here for Hillary Clinton on all issues.
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