Watch the Democratic Candidates Respond to Paris Attacks at Debate
At Saturday evening’s Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa, the candidates were given a short period of time to respond directly to the terrorist attacks that rocked Paris Friday. Bernie Sanders pivoted to his hallmark cause of income inequality, Hillary Clinton spoke out strongly against ISIS, and Martin O’Malley used his time to discuss the threats that face a changing world. Here are there remarks in their entirety.
Bernie Sanders
Let me concur with you and with all Americans who are shocked and disgusted by what we saw in Paris yesterday. Together, leading the world, this country will rid our planet of this barbarous organization called ISIS. I’m running for president because as I go around this nation I talk to a lot of people. And what I hear is people’s concern that the economy we have is a rigged economy. People are working longer hours for lower wages and almost all the new income and wealth goes to the top 1 percent. And then, on top of that, we’ve got a corrupt campaign finance system in which millionaires and billionaires are pouring huge sums of money into super PACs heavily influencing the political process. What my campaign is about is a political revolution. Millions of people standing up and saying, “Enough is enough, our government belongs to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires.”
Hillary Clinton
Our prayers are with the people of France tonight, but that is not enough. We need to have a resolve that will bring the world together to rout out the kind of radical jihadist ideology that motivates organizations like ISIS, a barbaric, ruthless, violent, jihadist terrorist group. This election is not only about electing a president, it’s also about choosing our next commander in chief, and I will be laying out in detail what I think we need to do with out friends and allies in Europe and elsewhere to do a better job of coordinating efforts against the scourge of terrorism. Our country deserves no less because all of the other issue we want to deal with depend upon us being secure and strong.
Martin O’Malley
My heart goes out to the people of France in this moment of loss: parents and sons and daughters and family members. And as our hearts go out to them, and as our prayers go out to them, we must remember this: that this is the new face of conflict and warfare, not in the 2oth century, but the new face of conflict and warfare in the 21st century. And there is no nation on the planet better able to adapt to this change than our nation. We must be able to work collaboratively with others, we must anticipate these threats bf they happen. This is the new sort of challenge, the new sort of threat that does in fact require new thinking, fresh approaches, and new leadership. As a former mayor and former governor, there wasn’t a day that I went to bed or got up without realizing that this could happen in our own country. We have a lot of work to do to better prepare our nation, and to better lead this world into this new century.