00:00The younger you are, the more you have at stake in a set of decisions that are about to be
00:04made.
00:04We need young people to step up, mobilize, and push Washington in the right direction.
00:16Thank you so much for joining us, Mayor.
00:18Thanks for having me through.
00:19Absolutely.
00:19What are the three things that you want to commit to women that you will do as president
00:24that they can then hold you accountable for?
00:26Well, first of all, economic empowerment.
00:28And again, we've got to deal with the gender pay gap that has many different sources,
00:32and all of those need to be attacked.
00:34One of them is enforcement on direct gender pay discrimination.
00:37But we also know it has to do with access to different positions.
00:41It has to do with workplace harassment, which often leads to women leaving the workforce.
00:45Another area that I think is very important is political empowerment.
00:48And so I've committed that my cabinet will be at least 50% women,
00:52especially areas like the military and the Veterans Administration,
00:55where we've got to do a better job serving women that will happen when we have women
00:59in more leadership roles.
01:00And then it's critically important to support and defend a woman's right to choose
01:04and access reproductive health.
01:08What was your starstruck moment on the campaign trail?
01:12It happens to be John Lewis.
01:13We were campaigning in Atlanta.
01:14We got word that he wanted to swing by where we were and say hello,
01:17and it was just one of the great honors of this whole thing to have a chance to spend some
01:20time with him.
01:20Yeah.
01:21The topic that comes up everywhere from women is, of course, the fact that we don't have affordable child care.
01:26What would you do to address that?
01:27So we absolutely need to establish paid family leave.
01:30This is one of the main drivers of the gender pay gap.
01:32But then you meet women who either are forced to leave the workforce because they can't get affordable child care,
01:37or I meet some who are working in order to be able to afford their child care,
01:42in order to be able to continue working.
01:43There's no way to get ahead.
01:44And it's why we need a federal intervention.
01:46If you could have dinner with one living woman who inspires you, who would it be, and why?
01:52Well, I would definitely go with RBG, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
01:55Somebody who shaped the rights of so many in this country, a pass-breaking woman.
02:00And I've got to think it would be a fascinating conversation.
02:02Yeah.
02:03How does your identity shape your presidential campaign?
02:07I'm running to be a president for everybody, and part of that is drawing on my own identity.
02:12And because I'm gay, I've seen my rights come up for debate.
02:15And I've seen my rights expanded because of the activism, not just of people like me,
02:20whose shoulders I stand on to even be able to be here, but people nothing like me, who are allies.
02:25And so I think about that when I think about other parts of my identity that are privileged, being male,
02:30being white,
02:31and recognizing that I have got to make myself useful to those who have been on the excluded side of
02:38those equations.
02:38What's your favorite binge-worthy show?
02:41So right now I'm getting into the new Star Trek series, Picard.
02:45I was a real next-generation follower when I was growing up, and I love that we've come full circle.
02:50Definitely one of my few kind of non-work things is catching up on TV a little bit every now
02:54and then.
02:55Sexual assault and violence against women is so widespread in this country.
02:59What do you believe you could do as president to really address this crisis?
03:03Well, this is another example of an issue that requires federal leadership.
03:08That's why I'm proposing that we double the resources available to the EEO, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.
03:13When it comes to violence, we've got to recognize the different forms that violence takes.
03:17That's why we've got to be ready to disarm domestic abusers.
03:20There is a crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.
03:23We've got to recognize in the military a continued crisis of sexual assault,
03:27and that's why we've got to change the way that these cases are handled.
03:30There's a crisis of violence against transgender women, and in particular, black transgender women.
03:35It has to be named. It has to be confronted.
03:36We need the legal as well as enforcement tools to act on it.
03:40What's your favorite constitutional amendment and why?
03:43It's going to sound like I'm working the refs here, but I would name one that hasn't passed, which is
03:47the ERA.
03:48We're very proud in Indiana that Birch Bayh, who is the senator for my state,
03:52was pushing this in addition to a number of other amendments back when we remembered how to do this.
03:56You know, now when I talk about constitutional amendments, people, I think, look at me funny,
04:00like this is something that only happened in the past.
04:03We should not be afraid to use this tool.
04:05We're going to need it to deal with Citizens United and get money out of politics.
04:08We have a ton of first-time voters, as you know.
04:11What would be some advice you would give to your 18-year-old self?
04:15My 18-year-old self didn't really know where he was going to fit in the world.
04:19You know, was beginning to come to terms with the fact that I was different,
04:22but didn't really understand or wouldn't admit what that meant.
04:24So the biggest thing I would say is, hold on tight and get involved and don't be afraid.
04:28I never would have guessed that my future would lead me to this place.
04:33There are millions of people who haven't made up their mind yet in this race.
04:36Why should they elect you the next president of the United States?
04:39For those of us around the country who maybe don't see where we fit
04:44if the only options are revolution or status quo, I'm offering something else.
04:48The kind of change that we need as a country, big, meaningful, bold, progressive change,
04:52but also a way to do it, built on a sense of belonging, of empowerment for everybody.
04:57Women are the majority of this country.
04:59We're the majority of voters.
05:01And we have the chance to change the direction of America.
05:03So the most important thing is get involved and go vote.
