The crowd broke out into applause when Beatty declared, "We don't need a third party. We need a second one."

When asked whether he would run for president, Beatty responded that he had no political consultants, but he did not block out the possibility of running in presidential elections in future years.

Diffusing attention from himself, Beatty voiced support for Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson, among others, as potential presidential candidates.

Throughout the speech Beatty called for extensive campaign finance reform and universal healthcare.

Discussing the extent to which special interests and rich lobbies control Congress, Beatty said, "If we trust democracy, it's time to pay for it," he said.

Beatty reaffirmed his pro-choice stance on abortion and stated his opposition to the death penalty.

He also pushed for gun control, but said that nothing will happen until big money interests are taken out of politics and power taken from the lobbies, particularly the NRA.