Tonight, the three Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley, will take part in a CNN town hall event live from Des Moines, Iowa. This is the final time the three will appear together before the February 1st Iowa caucus. The event will held on the camps of Drake University, and will be moderated by CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. The event is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET on CNN.
News Source: CNN
On her second day in Iowa, Hillary Rodham Clinton continued to meet with potential voters and took part in a roundtable with small business owners from across central Iowa. The event, which took place at Capital City Fruit Company in Norwalk, focused on America’s reliance on small businesses, and the difficulty many small business owners face to start their business and to keep their doors open. Clinton said, “We need to be, we have to be, No. 1 again. Slowly over time it’s become more difficult — more expensive, more red tape, unnecessary regulations that have really put a damper.”
During the roundtable, one of the business owners referred to increasing costs in health care and Clinton spoke about health care and the Affordable Care Act. She acknowledged that was a problem, and said that she was interested in updating aspects of the law. This isn’t new for Clinton, however. In several speeches before announcing her candidacy, Clinton hinted that was open to changes to the ACA.
Other business owners brought up the difficulty of hiring immigrants and having to turn down able works because of the their immigrant status. Because immigration reform is currently stalled in Congress, businesses are stuck in the middle. Clinton blamed the lack of comprehensive immigration reform on political ideologies. She went on to say, “We are really missing out on economic opportunities because we haven’t been able to agree on comprehensive immigration reform.”
The event was a listening session where she encouraged the small business owners to talk openly. Clinton shied away from answering questions about her platform and plan for small businesses saying that she was still in the building phase and wanted to hear what people have to say before her platform is complete.
Today wrapped up Clinton’s visit to Iowa, where she also visited Des Moines and Marshalltown, but she promised that she would be back soon. She is expected to head to New Hampshire next where she will likely hold similar listening sessions with different groups of voters.
UPDATE: Hillary for America created a video highlighting Clinton’s trip to Iowa.
You can see pictures from Iowa on the Hillary for America Flickr page. Also, be sure to follow Clinton’s Twitter account and Facebook page. And don’t forget to donate to the campaign.
New Source: Politico, The Des Moines Register
Hillary Clinton Speeches 