ADVERTISEMENT

Biden Says He Would Punish Saudi Arabia, China: Campaign Update

Booker Proposes New Rights for College Athletes: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that he would punish China, Saudi Arabia and other countries that commit human rights abuses, including discrimination against LGBTQ people.

“I would in fact curtail aid, curtail foreign assistance to countries” that violate gay rights or that make homosexuality illegal, he said Thursday at a forum in Los Angeles hosted by Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for the rights of LGBT people.

He said he would also penalize China because of “what they’re doing to Uighurs,” a reference to a Muslim minority group from China’s western province of Xinjiang that has long been suffered human rights violations, including mass incarceration.

Biden said he would punish Saudi Arabia, even though “they are supposedly our ally and all the rest.” Same-sex relations are illegal in the Middle Eastern kingdom and courts can impose death sentences.

“They have very little socially redeeming value,” he said. “We cannot be part of propping up governments who abuse in any fundamental -- culture is never a rationale for pain, never a rationale for prejudice. It really isn’t.”

Speaking after Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren said she would use trade relationships to pressure countries over human rights violations. ”It’s all going to be on the table,” she said. “You want to do trade with us, then let’s talk about what your full record is.”

Tom Steyer Raises More Than $2 Million (2:36 p.m.)

Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer raised more than $2 million from donors in the third quarter, his campaign said, but didn’t indicate how much of his own money the billionaire has put toward his presidential run.

The contributions are far less than Steyer spent in the third quarter, when he bought $16.5 million worth of broadcast and cable television time, data from Advertising Analytics shows. Candidates can give or loan their campaigns unlimited sums under federal election laws. President Donald Trump gave his campaign $66.1 million in his 2016 run.

The donations allowed Steyer to meet the fundraising requirements to appear at the Democratic debates in October and November. The campaign said it had 166,119 donors who gave an average of about $12. Steyer, who launched his campaign in July, will appear in the October and November debates.

The $2 million total places Steyer in the lower tier of candidates in third-quarter fundraising, behind author and political novice Marianne Williamson, who raised $3.1 million, and Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who raised $2.3 million. Bernie Sanders raised $25.3 million, the biggest third-quarter total. Candidates report their fundraising for the period to the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 15.

Steyer, who has said he was prepared to spend $100 million of his own money to win the White House, has made impeaching Donald Trump and fighting the influence of money in politics the centerpieces of his campaign. -- Bill Allison

Gabbard Threatens to Boycott Democratic Debate (1:34 p.m.)

Tulsi Gabbard is threatening to boycott the Oct. 15 Democratic presidential debate, claiming the party and the media were “rigging” the primary elections.

In a video posted on Twitter, Gabbard said the Democratic National Committee and its “partners in the corporate media” were trying to “replace the roles of voters” in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. She said they were “using polling and other arbitrary methods” to keep certain candidates off stage.

Biden Says He Would Punish Saudi Arabia, China: Campaign Update

Gabbard qualified for the August debate in Detroit, failed to qualify for the September debate in Houston and will appear at the debate Tuesday in Westerville, Ohio, which required participants to have at least 130,000 individual donors and 2% in four approved polls.

Gabbard used similar phrasing to that of President Donald Trump, who frequently complains about the Democrats and “their partners” in the media. -- Emma Kinery

Warren, Buttigieg Unveil LGBTQ Rights Plans (8:40 a.m.)

Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg each released plans aimed at advancing LGBTQ rights hours before they’re set to participate in a Human Rights Campaign Foundation town hall on the subject.

Buttigieg, who would be the first openly gay U.S. president, said he plans to use his own story to “tear down the walls that have excluded far too many LGBTQ+ people for far too long.”

Biden Says He Would Punish Saudi Arabia, China: Campaign Update

In a video announcement, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor recounted how he was able to leave his husband, Chasten, at his mother’s hospital bedside last year to tell his father, who was receiving chemotherapy at the time, that his mother needed immediate heart surgery.

“I wanted to tell him in person, and I was only able to do that because I knew Chasten could stay at my mom’s side,” Buttigieg said. “In the eyes of the hospital, in the eyes of the state, in the eyes of the law, not just in my heart, he was a member of our family, my lawfully married spouse.”

Buttigieg’s plan includes seeking passage of legislation that would prohibit denying LGBTQ+ people jobs or housing based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and would require insurer coverage for “gender-affirming treatments” for transgender individuals. He also would seek increased benefits for veterans discharged from the U.S. military for being members of LGBTQ+ community.

Warren also backs passage of that legislation, known as the Equality Act. In addition, her plan requires organizations that receive federal grants to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. She said she’d give providers “discretion to deem gender-affirming procedures as medically necessary based on an individualized assessment.” -- Kathleen Miller

Booker Proposes New Rights for College Athletes (6 a.m.)

Cory Booker wants to use the power of the presidency to ensure that college and professional athletes are “free from exploitation and harm.”

Under Booker’s plan, college athletes could be paid for the rights to their name, image or likenesses. Last week, California became the first state to allow college athletes to receive payment for playing.

Booker, a Democratic presidential candidate and senator from New Jersey, played on Stanford University’s football team as an undergraduate.

His proposal also addresses the gap between men and women’s pay. He said that as president he would sign into law the Athletics Fair Pay Act, which would mandate that governing bodies spots like the United States Soccer Federation compensate female athletes equally and fairly.

“Just as we shouldn’t accept collusion, wage theft, and a massive gender pay gap in any other industry, we shouldn’t accept them in sports,” Booker said in a statement.

He said he hopes to improve protections for college athletes by revising standards for their health and education. Athletes would be able to get a second medical opinion at no out-of-pocket cost, and colleges would have to foot the bill for sports injury-related medical bills. The Department of Education would be required to annually report on college athletes’ educational achievement. - Emma Kinery

COMING UP

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation will host a town hall at the University of California at Los Angeles devoted to LGBTQ issues on Thursday. Candidates scheduled to attend are: Warren, Booker, Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Julián Castro and Tom Steyer. Bernie Sanders, who has been recovering from a heart attack, also is scheduled to appear, but his campaign hasn’t said whether he still plans to attend.

The fourth Democratic debate is scheduled for Oct. 15 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Twelve candidates are slated to take part: Biden, Warren, Sanders, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Klobuchar and O’Rourke, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, Steyer and Andrew Yang.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union will host forums in Iowa with Democratic presidential candidates on Oct. 13. Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Harris and Michael Bennet have confirmed that they will attend.

--With assistance from Kathleen Miller, Emma Kinery and Bill Allison.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John Harney

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.