- #InsleeTownHall: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee faced voters at a CNN town hall, moderated by Wolf Blitzer.
- His 2020 platform: Inslee is running as a rare single-issue candidate, making combating climate change the central rationale for his campaign.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democratic presidential candidate, just wrapped his CNN town hall where he addressed a host of issues, including climate change, health care and President Trump.
In case you missed it, here are five key quotes from Inslee's town hall:
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has made his entire 2020 platform about fighting climate change. But when asked tonight how he'd fix the broken recycling system, he didn't have an answer.
"I thought I had the answers to every question and I don't have answer to that. But next time we meet I'm going to have a better approach. I know that I have a team of people who are looking for options on this. We know how important this is," he said.
He went on to say that companies need to stop making products that have to recycled, and said that he would support "redesigning our systems, our packaging systems."
"We know plastics are an enormous environmental problem," he said.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, asked on Wednesday how he would approach foreign relations differently than President Donald Trump, said a primary difference between he and the President is that he doesn’t believe the world is a zero-sum game.
“He has a world view… of thinking that for him to win somebody else has to lose,” Inslee said. “And I really believe he extends that to our international policies.”
Inslee cited Trump withdrawing from the Iran deal and the Paris climate agreement.
He added:
“So the only way he believes America can succeed is if another country somehow is subjugated or loses some treaty right. That’s a dangerous policy. It has damaged us in our international relations.”
Inslee went on to say that he sees himself as the perfect candidate to defeat Trump in 2020 because he is “a very optimistic person" while Trump is "a very pessimistic person.”
“I do believe he has reduced our national security, not increased it,” he said. “I would have a diametrically opposed position.”
Inslee said it's been difficult for employees at Boeing, which is based in Washington.
"This has been a painful thing for the people who make these airplanes. But I have to tell you, I would have grounded these jets much sooner. And don't hold me totally to this because I didn't have all of the briefing. But I would have been given serious consideration to grounding them after the first loss," he said.
He also said he regrets the fact that Boeing is able to threaten the state.
"Boeing should not have been able to threaten the state of Washington to move 20,000 jobs out of our community," he said. "We're the best place to make airplanes and have been for many decades. But they threatened my state and 20,000 jobs unless they got certain tax benefits. I liken that as kind of extortion in a sense. I don't think that's right. I think we should be protected from that type of behavior."
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday night at CNN’s town hall that he would push to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate if he wins the presidency, believing that it is the largest impediment to passing health care reform and climate change legislation.
Inslee was one of the earliest candidates to support getting rid of the Senate rule that requires certain bills get 60 votes to pass. Getting rid of that provision would mean bills could pass solely on majority rule.
“We are not going to be able to get health care done or anything else for that matter, unless we get rid of the filibuster,” Inslee said. “I was the first candidate in this race running for president to be very unequivocal about this.”
“If the filibuster is still in Mitch McConnell’s hand come 2021, all hope is sort of down the tubes to be able to do real significant reform. So I’m telling you, if I’m given this highest honor, I will lead the charge to end this senatorial privilege, which is an ancient artifact of a bygone in time, and let’s get some health care reform and climate change legislation and reform the United States of America.”
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on Wednesday during his CNN town hall that he supports voting President Donald Trump out of office in 2020, not impeaching him at this time.
Inslee, in response to a question about impeachment, said that he is as angry as anyone about some of Trump’s decisions, but he added that he thinks the most fruitful way for Democrats to oust Trump is at the ballot box.
“I believe the current situation right now is that we should have a dramatic, engaged, concerted, energetic and successful effort on November 2020 to make Donald Trump a blip in history,” Inslee said. “... Because filing articles of impeachment, as you know, doesn’t solve the trick. You have to have conviction in the Senate."
He added: “So for my money at the moment, we're doing what we should be doing, which is to get ready to remove this person from this high office.”
Inslee did not say he would never support impeachment, noting that not everything about Trump is currently known.
When Jay Inslee was a member of Congress, he supported a 1994 crime bill that included stiffer penalties for drug crimes and contributed to the massive incarceration of people of color.
"Listen, that was a situation where many Democrats, including myself, believed we needed some response to the epidemic of crime at the time. But I will tell you that -- this, if I knew then what I know now I would not have cast that vote. It has resulted in racial disparities in our system," he said.
Clinton has since conceded that over-incarceration in the United States stems in part from policies passed under his administration.
Politicians in general are turning their attention away from "tough on crime" policies to those focused on lowering prison populations and providing more opportunities for low-income areas.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday that he did not regret his vote in favor of the 1994 assault weapons ban, despite the fact that he believes he lost his congressional seat because of it.
“I voted for that bill, I provided one of the critical votes to get it over the top and I lost my seat,” he said.
Despite losing re-election during what came to be known as the Republican Revolution in 1994, Inslee would return to the House in 1999 and become Washington's governor in 2013.
After losing re-election, Inslee said what the vote showed was "when you vote your convictions over political expediency, on occasion, it’s not good for your career.”
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee took an early shot at President Donald Trump on Wednesday when he maligned the fact that the President falsely said the noise from wind turbines cause cancer.
“And now when we can get a president of the United States that understands wind turbines don’t cause cancer, they cause jobs,” Inslee said.
Trump, during a recent speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s spring dinner, knocked wind energy.
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer,” the President said.