Four 2020 Democratic presidential candidates discussed a wide range of issues Thursday before a largely Hispanic audience in Iowa at the Presidential Town Hall sponsored by Newsmax and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Moderated by Newsmax TV's John Bachman and Spectrum News anchor Annette Garcia, the event featured Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro; and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke.
In addition, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, appeared by video link during the event, held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa, and featuring an audience of as many as 800 people.
The candidates took questions on a wide range of issues — from healthcare to immigration to wage equality to police-involved shootings to reparations to reproductive rights to LGBTQ fairness to gun control.
David Cruz, LULAC communications director, moderated questions from the audience.
The crowd was most friendly to Sanders, as they applauded many of his longstanding campaign positions, but also cheered O'Rourke and Castro on many points.
"This campaign and the election is more than just defeating Donald Trump," Sanders said in his closing statement. "It is about transforming our economy and our government — and creating a nation that works for all of us not just the wealthy."
Sanders also said that he would strike down "through executive order and on day one" domestic gag rules that discouraged women from going to Planned Parenthood centers to obtain abortions — as well as foreign restrictions barring U.S. aid to global organizations that provide reproductive health services to women.
"I believe that in the United States and all over the world, it is women who have the right to control their bodies and not governments," Sanders said.
Every candidate repeatedly slammed President Donald Trump, his actions and his policies that have been "weaponized to treat people cruelly," Castro said.
"I'm not going to do that," he told the crowd. "We're gonna make sure that we have an immigration system that is orderly and reasonable.
"Of course, we're going to keep our borders secure, but we're gonna treat people with common sense," Castro said.
At one point when asked about his immigration plan, the former HUD secretary quipped, "I wish that these Democrats would stop speaking like Republicans."
"Not everybody, but a lot of the candidates are afraid of that issue — and we have watched this president demonize immigrants since he announced in the summer of 2015."
On his gun buyback plan, O'Rourke reiterated that he would not circumvent the Second Amendment, but "there is no right to own a weapon of war.
"We wouldn't allow you to have a bazooka or drive a tank down the street, because those rightly belong on the battlefield and do not belong in our communities," he said.
O'Rourke also called for stronger background checks, tougher red flag laws, and wider use of extreme risk protection orders.
In response to a question from a Colorado private investigator whose facing police roadblocks in the murders of three young Hispanics, Gabbard said the federal government would have a critical role in these matters under her administration.
"In these instances of corruption and abuse of power, the federal government needs to get involved to launch objective investigations and hold those responsible refusing to fulfill their own duty to serve and protect the people in their communities," she said.
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