If you happened to tune in on Sunday night, the Democratic presidential candidates debated the rising cost of college, criminal justice reform, and climate change — all issues that millennials have identified as important to their decision of which candidate to support.
The debate was streamed live on YouTube and featured questions from “YouTube stars,” including lifestyle blogger Connor Franta, MTV host Franchesca Ramsey, technology reviewer Marques Brownlee, and scientists from MinuteEarth.
The 23-year-old video blogger Connor Franta (who has over 5 million subscribers to his YouTube channel) asked Hillary Clinton how she would work to engage young voters, many of whom are turning to Bernie Sanders.
“Getting my generation to vote should be a priority for any presidential candidate,” he said. “Now, I know Senator Sanders is pretty popular among my peers, but what I want to know is, how are all of you planning on engaging us further in this election?”
In her answer, Clinton talked about her college affordability plan, and how she would protect women and the LGBT community from a “Republican assault” on their rights.
“I’ve laid out my ideas about what we can do to make college affordable; how we can help people pay off their student debts and save thousands of dollars, how we can create more good jobs because a lot of the young people that I talk with are pretty disappointed the economic prospects they feel their facing,” Clinton said. “So making community college free, making it possible to attend a public college or university with debt free tuition, looking for ways to protect our rights especially from the concerted Republican assault; on voting rights, on women’s rights, on gay rights, on civil rights, on workers rights.”
Franchesca Ramsey, the host of MTV’s race and pop culture series Decoded, asked candidates how they would ensure that incidents of police violence are investigated and prosecuted fairly.
Sanders answered the question, saying it was a job for the U.S. Justice Department.
“Whenever anybody in this country is killed while in police custody, it should automatically trigger a U.S. attorney general’s investigation,” he said.
Sanders also argued we have to move towards community policing and “de-militarize our police departments so they don’t look like occupying armies.” He also argued we have to “make our police departments look like the communities they serve in their diversity.”
Marques Brownlee asked where the candidates stand on privacy versus security, and how technology companies and the government can find common ground.
Martin O’Malley answered the question saying the federal government should be required to get a warrant to access any personal information and, “no people should ever give up their privacy or their freedoms in a promise for security.”
The team at MinuteEarth offered their take on climate change, and the fact that “the U.S. still gets 82 percent of our energy from coal, oil, and natural gas.” NBC moderator Lester Holt asked the candidates how they would convince Americans to change their behavior.
Sanders replied that the younger generation already “instinctively” understands the problem.
“Bottom line is, we need to be bold and decisive, we can create millions of jobs. We must, for the sake of our kids and grandchildren, transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”
Sanders also had the chance to defend his place in the race against Clinton, citing his poll numbers, which have crept close to overtaking Clinton in some states.
“As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign began she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of three percentage points,” he said. “Guess what? In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very, very close. Maybe we’re ahead New Hampshire.”
Sunday night was the final Democratic presidential debate before primary voting begins in February.
