Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20240622

Country. That is really about the american dream. [applause] Governor Walker to ensure the prosperity, we need to be for a progrowth economic plan that enables our individuals and our families to earn, to save, and to achieve their piece of the american dream. There is a real contest out there. And set of the topdown government knows best approach that you hear from so many in washington, when you to build the economy from the ground up in a way that is new and fresh organic and dynamic that says as long as you do not violate the health and safety of your neighbor, go out and start your own career. Build your own business. Live your own life. [cheers] Governor Walker that is freedom. The kind of freedom that is the cornerstone of the american dream. We have a plan to help more people live that dream. A plan that will help more people create more jobs and higher wages. You dont what it starts with . We need to repeal obama care once and for all. [cheers] Governor Walker we need to repeal the socalled Affordable Care act and put patients and families back in charge of their health care decisions, not the federal government. [cheers] Governor Walker many of you here know that when it became governor i literally allowed the state to join the federal lawsuit against obamacare on my first day. We need a president who won the first they will call on congress to once and for all repeal obamacare entirely. [cheers] Governor Walker then we need to rein in the outofcontrol federal regulations that are like a blanket on the nations economy. Enforce common sense but lets get rid of bureaucratic red tape. As governor i call for a moratorium on new regulations. We can do the same in washington in the vacant repeal all the other bad obama regulations to get this economy going again. [cheers] Governor Walker next, we need to put in place in all the above Energy Policy that says we will use the abundance of what god is given us here in america and on this continent. [applause] Governor Walker that is right. We are an Energy Rich Country and we need we can bitterly start refueling our economic recovery. We need a president who one day one will prove approve the keystone pipeline. [cheers] Governor Walker approve that pipeline and put in place a plan to level the Playing Field for all other forms of energy. Then we need to help people get the education and the skills that they need to succeed. Because we know if you do that we can help people find careers that pay far more than minimum wage. Here in wisconsin we reformed public education. We provided more quality choices for families. I trust families and i trust parents to make the right decision for the children. [cheers] Governor Walker i believe that every child regardless of the zip code or background or what their parents do for a living, i believe every child deserves access to great education. Be at a traditional public, charter choice, private, or Holmes School education. Homeschool education. Every child deserves a great education. [cheers] Governor Walker that is what i want along with that, i want to make sure we have high standards. Those standards should be set at the local level. No common core. [cheers] Governor Walker that is why i will work so hard to take power and money out of washington and send it back to our statea in our schools where it is more effective, efficient, and more accountable to the American People. [cheers] Governor Walker think about this. If you take a dollar of your purse or wallet, where would you rather spend . In washington or at your Childs School . I would rather spend it at your Childs School and if you give me the chance, we will send us dollars back to help your Childs School. [applause] Governor Walker and then we need to lower the burden on our taxpayers sicu can keep more of your hardearned dollars so you can keep more of your hardearned dollars. We need to do that for individuals as well as job makers creators because we need to make them competitive in the world so they can wring more jobs back from overseas and put more fellow americans back to work here in america. [applause] Governor Walker you know what . We can do it. We can do it because we did it in wisconsin and we can do it in washington. [cheers] Governor Walker some people wonder why i spend so much time focused on lowering the tax burden. Some of you know that we like to shop a kohls. Over the years i have learned if im going to buy a new shirt i go to the wreck that says it was 29. 99 and noticed 19. 99. We get of the insert from the sunday newspaper or maybe we get the flyer we have back at home. If youre really lucky, 30 off. [applause] Governor Walker as the clerk is ringing it up, shes gives into her purse and pulls out some of that cold cash kohls cash and the next thing you know they are paying me to buy the shirt. [cheers] Governor Walker not really, but it seems like it. Had is a Great Company like that make money . The make it off the volume. The make it off the volume. They can charge a higher price and if youve you can afford it, but they lower the price broaden the base, and they make more money off of volume. That is how it think of the taxpayers money. The government can charge a higher rate in some could afford it, but if you broaden the base and expand the volume of people who can participate in the economy. [applause] Governor Walker years ago we used to call that a similar plan was successful under Ronald Reagan. I call it the kohls curve. Unit had to spend your money better than the federal government and will be do it will get a lot better. [cheers] Governor Walker to prosper we need to live in a safe and stable world. That is why i am for true safety. Commanderinchief has a sacred duty to protect the American People. In my lifetime, the best president when it comes to National Security and Foreign Policy was a governor from california. [cheers] Governor Walker under his leadership we rebuilt the military. We stood up for allies. We stood up to our enemies. And without apology, we stood for american values. [cheers] Governor Walker that led to one of the most people times in modern american history. Sadly, today, under the obamaclinton doctrine america is leading from behind. That has is headed towards disaster. We have a president who drew a line in the sand and allowed to be crossed. A president who thought isis was the jv squad yemen a success story, and iran a place we do business with. [boos] Governor Walker when my brother and i were kids we used to tie ribbons around the tree in front of her house during the 444 days that iran held 52 americans hostage. One of those hostages was kevin purdy wrote down the way in no creek. He was the youngest of the hostages. A marine who would just been assigned to serve in the u. S. Embassy. He is here today with us. [cheers] [applause] Governor Walker kevin knows that iran is not a place to do business with. Iran has not changed much since the day he and the other hostages were released on president reagans first day in office. Looking ahead, we need to terminate the bad deal with iran on the very first day in office. [cheers] Governor Walker we need to terminate that deal on the very first day in office. Put in place crippling economic sanctions on iran and convince our allies to do exactly the same thing. [cheers] Governor Walker earlier this year president obama declared, he proclaimed that the greatest threat to future warming, climate change. Well, mr. President , i respectfully disagree. The greatest threat to future generations is radical islamic terrorism and we need to do something about it. [cheers] Governor Walker we can start by lifting the political restrictions on our military personnel already in iraq and empower them to help our kurd and sunni allies to reclaim territory taken by isis. On behalf of your children in mind, i would rather take the fight to them until they bring the fight us instead of waiting until they bring the fight us. [cheers] Governor Walker we need to a knowledge that israel is an ally and start treating israel like an ally. [cheers] Governor Walker there should be no daylight between our two countries. That is why early this year when i went to israel i not only met with the prime minister, i met with the Opposition Leader to let them know that if i were president there would be no daylight between United States and israel Going Forward. [cheers] Governor Walker we need to stop the aggression of russia. Putin believes in the old linen principle, that you probe with bayonets. Under obama and clinton, he has found hold of mush over the last two years. Few years. The United States needs a Foreign Policy that will put steel in front of our enemies. [cheers] Governor Walker we need to stop chinas cyberattacks, slow their advances into international waters, and speak out about their abysmal human rights record. [applause] Governor Walker and we need to have the capacity to protect our National Security interests here and abroad and those of our allies. That begins by rebuilding the Defense Budget by going back to the levels proposed by secretary of defense gates. [applause] Governor Walker we need to honor our men and women in uniform by giving them the resources that they need to make us safe and going for it by giving them the quality and Timely Health care that they deserve when every return home when they return home. [cheers] Governor Walker most of all the best way we can honor them is by fighting to win. This is important. Our goal should be peace, but there will be times when america must fight. If we must americans fight to win. [cheers] Governor Walker Going Forward the world must know that there was no greater friend and no worse enemy in the United States of america. America is a great country. It is a great country. You know what . We just have to start leading again. Is not too late. We can do it because we have done it before. Veterans like bob turner remind me that what makes america great, what makes us exceptional, what makes us the greatest country and all of the world has been all throughout our history. In times of crisis. Beat economic or physical, military or spiritual there have been men and women of courage to of been willing to stand up and think more about future generations than they thought about their own political futures. Ladies and him and gentlemen, this is one of those times in american history. [cheers] Governor Walker and so after a great deal of thought and a whole lot of prayer. , we are so honored to have you join with us here today as we officially announce that we are running to serve as your president of the United States of america. [cheers] [applause] Governor Walker we want our sons, matt and alex, and all the other sons and daughters like them to grow up in a country that is as great as great as the country we inherited. Americans deserve a president who will fight and win for them. [cheers] Governor Walker someone who will stand up for the right to life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [cheers] Governor Walker someone who will stand up for a religious freedoms and all of her other constitutional rights. [cheers] our other constitutional rights. Someone who will stand up for america. It does not matter whether you come from a big city or suburb or smalltown. I will fight in win for you. [applause] Governor Walker healthy or sick, born or unborn, i will fight and win for you. [cheers] Governor Walker juncker old or anywhere in between young or old or anywhere in between, i will fight for you. [cheers] Governor Walker over the years i have met some amazing people. Many of whom have come here from other places around the world. I have got to tell you, to a person, they tell me the reason they came here was not to become the reason david they came here was because america is one of the few places left in the world where it does not matter what class you are born into or what your parents did for a living. In america you can do and be anything you want. That is the american spirit. [cheers] Governor Walker you see, in america the opportunity should be equal for all of us. The outcome is up to each and every one of us here across this great country. That is what we just took a day off to celebrate the fourth of july and not the 15th of april because in america we celebrate our independence from the government not our dependence on it. [cheers] Governor Walker that is why i love america. That is why we love america. And that is why working together we can fight and win for america. Thank you for coming out. God bless you all for being here. God bless our military and may god continue to bless the United States of america. [cheers] [cheers] [cheers] born in america sun going down on an alley freeway l. A. Freeway newlyweds in the back of a limousine a welders son and a bankers daughter all they want is everything she came out here to be an actress he was the singer in the band oklahoma and talked about the stars they could of been only in america the red white and blue born in america well get a chance everybody against to dance gets to dance only in america [cheers] Governor Scott walker of wisconsin, his president ial Campaign Announcement from this past monday. One of the speakers we are covering today at the family leadership summit with the mother republican candidates. Live coverage from i will will resume in just a few minutes. The program should continue about five minutes from now. I live coverage continuing on cspan. Governor walker is the last president of candidate who will speak today. That should be about 7 20 eastern time. Up next is ted cruz, my cut to become a senator lindsey graham, governor bobby jindal, and Rick Santorum all get to come as our live coverage of the family leadership summit in ames, iowa continues in just a few moments here on cspan. [no audio] driving down the street today, i saw a sign for lemonade they were the cutest kids i had ever seen in this front yard as they handed me my glass smiling and thinking to myself, man, what a pictureperfect code that postcard this would make of america the High School Prom, a ride in a chevrolet a man on the moon, fireflies in june and kids selling lemonade its forms, open arms one nation under god its america later on when i got home i flipped the tv on i saw a little town that some big twister for part for a tore apart people came from miles around to haven help the neighbors out i was thinking to myself im so glad i live in america is the High School Prom , a springsteen song a ride in a chevrolet a man on the moon, fireflies in june and kids selling lemonade its forms, open arms one nation under god its america we dont always there was no place i would rather build my life as a kid with a can, a rock n roll band a farm cutting hay its a big black in the summer wind a here is i follow heroes grace Governor Scott walkers president ial announcement for monday. We leave it now to return to our live coverage in ames iowa of the family leadership summit. More president ial candidates to become beginning with senator ted cruz of taxes in just a few minutes. Live here on cspan. While i was out over lunch there was a lot of positive comments about the summit and people making their offering and all that stuff. I did have some people say bob, i dont carry anything with me to free events other than my phone. Great. We have good news. If you take out your phone, you can text to 515 2107475, and you can text the amount you would like to give. 5152107475. I thought they were going to put something on the screen and hopefully they do that. What is interesting about text is you can go to several characters. Go as many digits as he was like to go and we will follow back up with you and get your free will offering. Right before ted cruz and frank luntz take the stage you will be greatly blessed by this next prisoner. Frank gaffney is the founder and president of the center for Security Policy in washington dc. The center is recognized as a resource for timely and penetrating analysis of foreign and defense policy matters. Frank himself as an expert on National Security issues such as sharia law, the decline of our military the vulnerability of americas electric grid and immigration and Border Security. Frank is the host of secure freedom radio, a nationally syndicated radio program, a weekly columnist for the washington times, a frequent guest on syndicated programs with folks like sean hannity and mark levin, and he cut his teeth with the Ronald Reagan administration. Please help me welcome Frank Gaffney to the stage. [applause] frank thank you. Good afternoon. What a privilege it is to be with you and my very very great appreciation to the team at this wonderful institution and to all of you for turning out to hear from well, as you heard before quite possibly the next president of the United States and others. Im honored to be able to talk to you a little bit about one of the things that will be confronting whoever that individual is. Namely, the threat posed to our country by if i can have my first slide the well, now im back. Back, back, back there we go. The vulnerabilities we are facing from the people who has made it their business to urge death to america. You have heard from, i think each of those who aspire to be our next commanderinchief, and im quite confident you will hear from the rest of them throughout the course of the day about this threat, about what i call the possibility that people like this not only think but will actually try to achieve not just the removal from the map of the world from israel, but a World Without america. Im intrigued by this statement. The president talked about the fact that the deal that they were then conjuring and have now delivered with iran was as important as their Health Care Initiative had been. Well, that sort of captures it doesnt it . The obama deal is what we have, and if the iranians are likelihood Nuclear Weapons, they will be able to keep them. Im going to talk about why that is such a problem, not just for somebody else, not just in the middle east, not perhaps even in europe, but for us at home. We failed to imagine threats in the past. Try imagining an america without electricity. Im going to talk to you a little bit about the grid. You are probably familiar with what is involved. There are three interconnects. Senator cruz will be speaking about his shortly. It is made up of these kinds of things generation facilities, control centers. The kind of backbone of the grid is what moves the power around, particularly with these kinds of highvoltage transformers. They are important because they are essentially irreplaceable. There are also telecommunications links that are dedicated or this purpose. All of these elements constitute what i think of as the most critical of critical infrastructures. You see it there in the upper righthand corner, but none of the other critical infrastructures upon which we depend literally for our lives. Throughout this country, every single one of us without exception, without regard for your Demographic Group or, for that matter, your political philosophy, depend upon these critical infrastructures for our survival. The great hero from arizona has recently revealed that in a statement, the Iranian Military disclosed that they are talking about using something called electromagnetic pulse against this countrys electric grid in more than 20 different places in this document. How might they do that . Well, one Blueribbon Commission said some studs in a tub would be a vehicle for delivering such a weapon. You can see in the front of the ship and artist rendering of how a launcher could be concealed in a container. This is a service the russians are making available on the world market these days. Interestingly enough, the iranians have actually launched missiles from maritime platforms. They have tested a missile in exactly the way that you would want it to operate if you wanted to debt eight a Nuclear Weapon not in or on top of a city in this country but in space if you wanted to detonate a Nuclear Weapon. That is how this electric magnetic pulse effect is accomplished. They have also lest i forget had that doctrine. Interestingly enough, a month ago, in a news outlet in iran they are all statecontrolled, of course an article appeared about how iran had built for the first time in emp filters, that is to say devices to protect their assets against emp. Accompanying that article was that photograph or, really, and artist rendering showing a satellite in a highly imaginative way using electromagnetic to cover large areas of the earth with very intense levels of Electromagnetic Energy. This is not exactly how it would work. Its actually a nuclear bomb inside that satellite, but the iranians have then orbiting over our country satellites at precisely the altitude that would be optimal to cover much of it with a nuclear generated emp. Well, what might that mean . This would be at a lower altitude than, say, where that scud would deliver a Nuclear Weapon, detonating it over someplace like cincinnati. You see those rings indicating the print, if you will, of the Electromagnetic Energy. What is underneath that footprint . About 75 of the Power Generation capacity of the United States, that slide i showed you earlier, and about 83 of those highvoltage transformers that i also showed you that are the backbone of the grid. Those things, ladies and gentlemen, today, if exposed to the kinds of Intense Energy that an electromagnetic pulse could deliver would be damaged if not destroyed outright. There are other means by which our grid could be attacked. The iranians have had some experience with this. This is a photograph of the club are towers. The u. S. Air force occupied basically dormitory in saudi arabia attacked by iranian agents with murderous effect. Somebody we dont know who about two years ago broke into a facility outside of san jose california. They went into underground vaults. They cut telecommunication lines. They put the Manhole Covers back , made it look like nothing had happened, then moved to precited firing positions and pumped 120 rounds of automatic weapon fire into 17 of the cooling radiators that keep those big transformers from overheating and trent an exploding. I know this is a community drawn together by, among other things, faith. It was an act, i believe of evidence that these attackers missed one communications link. It connected that facility to an offsite control center. They did not know what had happened but a saw the pressure dropping in those cooling radiators, and the temperature spiking in those transformers. They did what they are supposed to do and emergency powered down. Fortunately, it was 1 00 in the morning. People were not too badly affected. Tank god those transformers and by the way for others on the site were not destroyed as a result of this attack. Had it then had it been successfully destroyed, that site would have plunged san francisco, silicon valley, and much of the Northern California area into darkness probably for years, making that how it look like a day at the saudi beach. Cyberattacks i think everybody here is familiar with the phenomenon now, if its the office of Personnel Management or target or home depot you know people are getting into our electronic databases and control systems. Well, unfortunately, theres reason to believe if somebody does it in our electric grid they could, in fact, take down 15 states, plunging 93 Million People into darkness and costing us perhaps as much as a trillion dollars, even if it is just a couple of weeks of blackouts. I regret to inform you that back i think it was october of last year a Forensic Organization looks at what had been going on in the electric control System Computers of our electric grid and discovered that the iranians had been in the system for two years. Giving them, in short, the capability to take down the grid at will. This may sound unbelievable to you. There is a tendency on the part of people who are hearing this for the first time to think this is nonsense. I cannot possibly be true. If it were true, you would have known about it. You are smart, youre educated. At the very least, our government would have done something about it. To rebut that, we put together this document. It is available for free if you would like to read it at securethegrid. Com. We call it guilty knowledge, what the u. S. Government knows about the vulnerability of the grid but refuses to fix. Its made up of the executive summaries of the 11th of summaries 11 different summaries that have been done by or for the federal government, which look at the physical sabotage attack threat, looked at the cyber threat, or looked at Something Else. I have no time to talk to you about it at length, but even if nobody the iranians, the left, the chinese, the North Koreans nobody, the Islamic State decides, theres someone else who will attack it in a way that is very similar to that kind of deadly emp i described, and it is mother nature. Roughly every 50 years 150 years, the sun hits the earth with that same kind of intense electric energy from solar flares that come our way. The last time it happened was 1859. At the time, the electric infrastructure, if you will, of the United States was basically telegraph wires. Many of them caught fire and burned to the ground. If that happened today with our electric infrastructure, with none of the protections it needs to withstand these kinds of Electromagnetic Energy flows, it would be devastating. The studies that we draw from that booklet include the solar storm phenomenon. You know what each of them found irrespective of the focus . Each of them found that it was a nationending threat. By the estimates of one of the chairman of one of these studies, as many as nine out of 10 americans will die if the power goes out and stays out for over a year. This is, in other words, ladies and gentlemen, i would argue the most important thing you are going to hear today and i mean no disrespect to all the other important things, but it is because of one reason and one reason alone if we lose the electric grid of the United States nothing else is going to matter. None of the other issues that brought you here, none of the other issues that these distinguished individuals will be talking about as priorities for our country. The good news, folks i served in the pentagon under president reagan. This is where i first stumbled onto much of this. At the time, it was a closely held national secret. No more, but for the past 50 years, the United States government the military specifically, has been protecting things that are vital to our national defense, specifically our Nuclear Deterrent forces. We know how to do this. It is not that expensive. It is not that difficult. It involves essentially three technologies surge protectors. Youve got one i hope, on your computer at home. Same basic concept. Capacitors that shut the power search around what we are trying to protect. And protection against other straight commissions. You have one almost certainly in your kitchen. Its called your microwave oven. If you want to try to protect it against emp, just put your cell phone or laptop in the microwave. Just dont turn it on the cost estimate for fisk sing the grid for fixing the grid are that it is modest by some estimates 2 billion. And yet, we are not doing it. At the very moment that we are seeing the iranians moving inexorably forward with their obama bomb, this is not something that we can allow to continue to go unattended. I pray those of you here in iowa will be talking endlessly to these folks over the next what is it . Seven or eight months . Will ask them what they are going to do to secure your grid and thereby your future and that of your children and your grandchildren. God bless you all. Great to talk with you. Thank you. [applause] welcome to iowa to the 2015 family leadership summit texas United States senator ted cruz. [applause] hes not here yet. Youre going to have an opportunity to do that in about 90 seconds. Hes coming on. Let me ask you first by the way, if anyone has not filled out those forms, ive got three or four staffers. There is a booth upstairs where you can get them. Just reach out to me and im happy to get that to you if you want to participate in the focus group. Are these the questions you want asks yes or no . [applause] what else havent we done that you want done . We got seven candidates to go. They are all still showing up. Slight change in schedule. What have we not addressed . You guys in front. Supreme court a promise we will get to that. Give me another. Department of education you want it abolished . [applause] the irs, you want it abolished . [applause] the Obama Administration, you want it abolished . [applause] i do know my audience. I want to ask you three questions, and then, hopefully he should be just about ready to come on oh, he is ready to come on right now . Ladies and gentlemen, the senator from the great state of texas, ted cruz. [applause] mr. Cruz you didnt see it but the standing ovation they gave me the first time was even better than that one. Im a lot better when im not on stage. I got to ask you a question by applause, how many of you supported a Government Shutdown two years ago . [applause] by applause, how many of you thought it was [inaudible] [applause] they supported it, but they are not convinced it was successful. What did you learn from it . You were one of the leaders. What did you learn from it, and what should a president do if they are having trouble cooperating with congress . Mr. Cruz the answer to that first question in washington d. C. , would be markedly different. There are a lot of evil in iowa and across the country who are fed up with politicians who promised something on the camp on the campaign trail and do not actually do what they said they would do. [applause] just about every republican in Congress Campaign saying they would do everything humanly possible to stop obamacare. When i promised 27 million texans that i mentioned, and im proud of standing and fighting to honor that promise. Now, in terms of success this is the part that challenges them, but it is part of my responsibility. Obamacare is still the law of the land. It has worked its way up to the courts and now has been the Supreme Court has rejected the appeal. Theres not much you can point to in the senate that has been successful. Theres a reason and i want to show you this. Honestly, would you rather have a governor or senator as your next president . Candidates alone, who would rather have a senator . [applause] who would rather have a governor . [applause] mr. Cruz let me jump in and ask one question how many of you would like to have a conservative as your next president . [applause] frank how does the next president actually get something done . Mr. Cruz in the midst of that fight, just about every graybeard in washington when on television and said this is a disaster. You are dooming the Republican Party fighting to stop this law. Harry reid is going to be reelected. Republicans are going to get killed in the 2014 election. A funny thing happened on the way to the election booth. Now, i guarantee you if that had happened, if we had gotten clobbered in the 2014 election every republican graybeard would have gone on television and said, you see . Its cruzs fault we got killed. Instead, we won an historic tidal victory, the biggest majority in the house since the 1920s. [applause] we picked up nine seats in the senate, including retiring harry reid as majority leader. [applause] and the number one issue in the country if you look at the ads and messages the number one issue was obamacare, i think mobilizing and energizing millions of conservatives against the train wreck that is obamacare was a major victory to winning a victory in 2014. And let me make one final quick point frank it is results mr. Cruz let me make one final quick point most wars are not won in a single skirmish. Millions of americans focused on how obamacare was costing millions of jobs, forcing millions into parttime work costing millions of their health care, the doctors, driving up there premiums. Obamas Approval Ratings plummeted. Im convinced as a result of that fight, 2016 is going to be a referendum on repealing obamacare. If i am elected president in 2017, a republican president is going to sign legislation repealing every word of that failed law. [applause] mr. Luntz you have not heard some of the conversations. You cannot say if im elected. The next president will, hopefully. Mr. Cruz i certainly hope that. Mr. Luntz i want to remind people to get in line for questions, and a want to raise one other issue. There has been an uproar over planned parenthood over the last 48 hours. By the way, its clear that we should not have alcohol for lunch. [laughter] [applause] so lets what do we do . What is the right philosophy and what is the right strategy for dealing with planned parenthood . Mr. Cruz let me say, the video that surfaced in the past week of a planned parenthood leader describing with no empathy, no compassion, no emotion selling body parts of unborn children was gruesome and disgusting, and every american should watch that video and simply say are those my values . What should we do . Number one, on tape, it appears the senior planned parenthood official is admitting to multiple federal ellen is felonies and multiple felonies at the state and local level. The u. S. Department of justice if it were not simply a partisan arm of the d and e, should open an investigation and prosecute planned parenthood if it were not simply a partisan arm of the dnc. [applause] local prosecutors, attorneys general, and das should investigate the planned parenthood affiliates in their jurisdictions, and congress should hold hearings, and we should cut off every penny of taxpayer funds. [applause] mr. Luntz i dont know whats broadcast at home, but that is the first spontaneous standing ovation of the summit, so you should understand how significant your comments were to them. Lets go to microphone number one. I feel like the gay marriage decision of the Supreme Court has drawn a bullseye on every single Christian Ministry in the country that opposes gay marriage. Im rather surprised there has not been much talk about how to protect those ministries from government intrusion and annihilation. What do you think we can do about that . Mr. Cruz you are absolutely right, and the Supreme Courts decision on marriage was naked judicial activism. It was lawless and it was fundamentally illegitimate. It was sad to see more than a few republicans including more than a few 2016 candidates publicly saying its the law of the land, it is settled surrender, and move on. [crowd boos] mr. Cruz there is something profoundly wrong when republicans running for president are reading from barack obama passed Barack Obamas talking point. [applause] i have been proud to defend traditional marriage as the union of one man and one woman my entire life. [applause] mr. Cruz and sir, you are exactly right next in the crosshairs is religious liberty. I have spent three decades fighting to defend religious liberty, defending the 10 commandments, defending the pledge of allegiance, defending the Mojave Desert utterance memorial. It is the first liberty in the First Amendment of the bill of rights, and i will never ever, ever shy away from defending the religious liberty of every american. [applause] mr. Cruz on august 21, here in iowa, we were hosting a religious liberty Value Hearing who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. I will tell you what my prayer is in the face of this disgraceful, lawless decision from the court that it will spark an awakening, that it will awaken the body of christ and lift us up to rise up from the 54 million evangelicals who are staying home to say we will take this country back for our values. [applause] mr. Luntz you are a powerful speaker with powerful ideas. Mr. Cruz its not the ideas that have power. Its the truth that has power. Mr. Luntz but there is something powerful in redemption. There is something powerful and acknowledging that we made a mistake and seeking forgiveness. Be candid with these deep convictions, when have you gotten it wrong . Mr. Cruz well, look, there are mistakes one makes over and over again. I just came out with a new book where i describe many of the mistakes i made, and i try to be very candid. Mr. Luntz can you share one with them and what it taught you emotionally and spiritually . Mr. Cruz one story i describe in the book is when i was in law school. I was raised in a christian home. I was raised being taught that marriage was a sacrament. My parents got divorced in law school. I argued with my parents. I sent my parents scripture after scripture on the sanctity of marriage. I argued this is wrong. I butted my head frankly, i was very judgmental to my parents. I did not agree with their decision to get divorced. It hurt me personally. But i will tell you afterwards i mean, i certainly i asked god for forgiveness at the pride on my part to judge them. That all of us on our faith journeys we encounter struggles. We encounter obstacles. One of the things every one of us learns as a child becoming an adult, that our parents are people, and people are entitled to make the stakes. People are entitled to stumble. People are entitled to sin, and that is part of who we are, and it is not my role to sit in judgment on them. That is something i have asked for forgiveness, and i was wrong. [applause] mr. Luntz so you were wrong and sitting of judgment of your parents. What about sitting in judgment of your colleagues on the u. S. Senate . Mr. Cruz it is interesting. I have endeavored not to do so and to the best of my knowledge in my time at the senate i have not spoken ill of any of my colleagues, republicans or democrats. [applause] mr. Luntz are you sure you want to make that declarative statement . Mr. Cruz im sure i do, and indeed, my standard response i have the whole press corps here. One of the things our wonderful friends in the press will observe is that when others attack me and for whatever reason, that has happened once or twice my response consistently is to respond with praise, to take the high road. That is how i intend to approach the next 18 months, not to impugn anyones character. [applause] mr. Cruz but i do want to make something clear. It is very different to say you will not engage in personal attacks and to say you will not differ on policy. I think we have an obligation to speak the truth. [applause] mr. Cruz i think it is the bread and butter of politics that should be the heart of a political debate, and where i differ with other candidates on amnesty, common core religious liberty, marriage, i will endeavor to tell the truth about my belief, my record and their records, and have any election be on substance but not on personal vitriol and attacks. [applause] mr. Luntz by the way, when he says candidates, he means leaders. In the back, were going to go with microphone three. A question for you about medicare. Currently, medpac is working on recommendations to Congress Regarding site mutual payments and health care, specifically between inpatient rehab facilities and Skilled Nursing facilities. This will mean that individuals with brain injuries, spoke, stroke and spinal cords will not receive the appropriate evidencebased rehab to reach their full potential to become a productive member of society again. How do you plan, if elected president , to ensure that individuals receive appropriate health care based on evidence . Mr. Cruz thank you for that question. I will say i do not know specific policy recommendations referenced in the report you brought up, so let me speak more generally on how to approach the issue. Without revealing the report you referenced, i do not want to give an opinion without having read it. When i will say is twofold. Number one when it comes to health care generally, we ought to be reforming health care so that we make Health Insurance personal portable, and affordable. We expand Patient Choice and keep government from getting in between us and our doctors. [applause] mr. Cruz now that principle applies across the board but also applies in particular circumstances. For example, what has happened to the v. A. Is shameful. [applause] mr. Cruz we need real accountability in the v. A. , and in particular, we need reforms that allow our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to be able to choose any doctor they wish. If they want to go to v. A. , great, but if they want a cardiologist in private practice, we should empower our thats to have choices. Empower our vets to have choices. [applause] mr. Cruz finally, on medicare, we need to honor the commitments we made to our seniors, and in particular, what we needed washington is leadership to stand up and preserve and reform medicare and Social Security so we can take care of our seniors and hollow through on those commitments for generations to come, and i am campaigning on entitlement reform to strengthen those fundamental bulwarks of our society. [applause] mr. Luntz lets go to microphone two. Thank you, mr. Cruz. I follow you, and i want to thank you for fighting on the senate floor on many issues, including obamacare. I am from wisconsin. On one of the millions of americans paying the comic care fine commie care fine and seeing my hours go over 21. Im in iowa looking for work. Tying that question into and i believe you would write it if you became president of the United States, that you would appeal this, tying this into we need a 2 3 majority all the time to override what obama calls his pen and phone tying this into the iran deal, what are we going to do if we do not get the 2 3 majority . This is serious. We have hostages sitting yet in iran. Look at what happened to our u. S. Marine last year sitting in mexico. What are we going to do . And thank you for being a fighter. [applause] mr. Cruz thank you for that question. Its a very important question. You are right that barack obama is fond of saying that he has a pen and has a phone. Whereas if you live by the pen, you die by the pen. I have said that if im elected president , the very first thing i intend to do is revoke every single unconstitutional and illegal executive action barack obama has taken. [applause] but let me get to iran because iran is an issue of extraordinary importance. This Iranian Nuclear deal is catastrophic. I think the single greatest National Security threat facing america is the threat of a nuclear iran. Under this deal, iran is allowed to keep all 19,000 centrifuges and allowed to keep spinning many of those centrifuges. Its allowed to keep much of its enriched uranium. Its allowed to keep developing its icbm program, which exists for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to carry a Nuclear Warhead to the United States of america. You do not need an icbm to reach israel. You neednt icbm to get across the atlantic and attack what they call the great satan, which is the United States of america. If this deal goes through, billions of dollars of a ran billions of dollars will go to has below, to hamas to hezbollah, to hamas. If this deal goes through, the Obama Administration will become the worlds leading finance year of radical islamic terrorism american dollars will fund jihadists seeking to murder americans, israelis, and europeans. Mr. Luntz why would the president do this . Mr. Cruz ben rhodes, the deputy National Security adviser, said the Iranian Nuclear deal would be the obamacare of the second term. I think he meant that as a compliment. The reason is simple they view this purely as a domestic political legacy and agenda. You cannot fight and to feet radical islamic terrorism when you have a president and an administration who refuses to do the words radical islamic terrorism. [applause] refuses to utter the words radical islamic terrorism. What is happening in iran this week profoundly endangers israel, profoundly endangers america, risks millions of lives. Its interconnected with the terrorist act at chattanooga where four u. S. Marines and once taylor were murdered. One sailor were murdered. President obama inexplicably referred to that as a lone gunman. It was not a lone gunman any more than hassan at fort hood was workplace violence. [applause] mr. Cruz and there is no issue more important than that the next president be one who will stand up on the world stage and say unequivocally under no circumstances will iran led by a theocratic ayatollah who leaves chance of death to america under no circumstances will iran be allowed to acquire a Nuclear Weapon. Mr. Luntz ladies and gentlemen, senator ted cruz. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. Introducing one of the nations foremost advocates for preserving marriage, cofounder and president of the National Organization or marriage, brian brown National Organization for marriage, brian brown. [applause] mr. Luntz ive got to tell you im a little surprised see you here today. I dont think i got the memo from the first few rows, but you lost. The issue is over. The issue is over. Half the people running for office are saying that nowadays. Nothing to see here. The institution of marriage, which predates human civilization by about 6000 years no fight, nothing to do. Yet, we had a dinner last night to get ready for tonights event. By golly, you are the most chipper person in the room. Explain for our audience why you are so optimistic on the heels of the United States Supreme Courts attempt to try to play god . Mr. Brown those that say that the fight to protect marriage is over just do not know us very well. [applause] i mean, people of faith have fought against great odds and the great civil rights battles for truth throughout the last 2000 years. Did they give up when it was difficult to stop gladiatorial combat in rome . Did William Wilberforce give up what it looked difficult to stop slave trade in england and when everyone mocked him and told him it would never happen . Did Frederick Douglass give up when he was fighting against slavery in the u. S. . Of course not. As people of faith, we know the truth about marriage, and we will never give up defending it. Am i right . [applause] mr. Luntz when legendary football coach bensalem barty took over the green bay packers, they were a terrible franchise when legendary football coach Vince Lombardi took over the green bay packers. They had a losing culture. Famously on the first their practice, he brings these grown men into the locker room and grabs the football and says, ive watched all your films. You stink. Youre not any good. Were going to pretend all that stuff that happened never occurred. Were going to start all over again from day one. He holds up the football and famously says to the team men, this is a football. And he started all over again teaching grown men who had been playing the game since they were kids the fundamentals of the game and built back up the culture of running for the green bay packers. They became title talent. I can we have to do this with the institution of marriage. If you look at long before the Supreme Court intervened, if you look at where we have been as an institution of marriage, the devaluing of marriage, the cohead of tatian rate, the way people have lost sight of what the true purpose of marriage is, i think we have to start all over with the culture. We have to say, ladies and gentlemen, this is marriage. This is why it is important for the preservation of a civil society. Mr. Brown i might disagree a little bit. Proponents in iowa have had some great victories. You brought up 2010. When we are allowed a free and fair vote, we have overwhelming numbers. 33 state and constitutional amendments voted on by states across this country that have supported marriage as the union of a man and woman. Only three times the most liberal states has samesex marriage been supported by the populace in a direct vote. Those were still great mistakes, but lets not misunderstand what has happened. What happened is that one branch of our government has assumed unto itself the right to throw into the trash the votes of over 50 million americans. Its wrong. Its unjust. The division is illegitimate, just like roe v wade, just like plessy v ferguson. The court got it wrong and its a legitimate decision, and we need to fight to overturn it. [applause] mr. Brown it is true, though, that we have an immense amount to do in the cultural realm. Its not a coincidence that in the same point of western civilization in which we see the fracturing of the bonds of family, when we see a rapid increase in the dissolution of families in divorce, and fatherlessness, that at that same point in history, thats the point at which you can even begin to conceive of the notion that two men or two women could be in a marriage. The point at which marriage becomes about desires and wants and not the biological males and females. Thats when cultures even start to bring up the idea of samesex marriage. The Something Else we need to focus on. I do not accept the idea that somehow we should move away from Public Policy or politics and hunker down into culture. Christ is king and all domains of human existence. [applause] mr. Brown its wrong to think we will abandon the political fight for Public Policy fight. Mr. Luntz msnbc told that to quit. And i know they tell me the truth on that network. I have appeared there a lot. Mr. Brown you wrote the book on this. If the left is telling us to do something, we probably should do the opposite. [applause] the ap has an interesting poll. In january, they showed 48 of americans were supported samesex marriage. In april, it was down to 44 . The headline was americans divided on marriage. No, theres less support for the redefinition of marriage after the Supreme Court decision than before, so this idea that the Supreme Court was going to settle the issue that once our robed masters had spoken, we would sort of take our ideas back into our churches and be quiet about it it is absolutely wrong. One of the things that is happening there are four things we need to do, and those things are beginning to happen. I am optimistic that they are happening. One, we need to continue to affirm the truth that marriage is and only can be the union of one man and one woman. [applause] this may at times mean defiance. When i think of what happened at the sweet cakes a greek in oregon when you have the state of oregon suing them for 135,000 and then putting a gag order on them saying, you cannot talk about the fact that your faith will not allow you to take part in a samesex Union Ceremony the state of oregon is doing this. This is fundamentally wrong. When i say a firm affirm, i mean most of us will not have to go through what they went through. If you are in their position you can do nothing else than stand up for this truth and defy those who would attempt to coerce you into accepting the lie of samesex marriage. [applause] when people say things are back, christians are being persecuted, our churches are being attacked, folks, its likely going to get worse. The days of comfortable christianity are over. Were not going through what the christians went through in tunisia. Were not seeing the sort of persecution that we need around the world. The very least we can do is stand up against unjust power to proclaim the truth when the law has. Net wrong, even if that means we will be called a few names or be persecuted by State Government to proclaim the truth when the law has gotten it wrong. For like you help contribute 400,000 to them showing that people have not given up on this issue. God is good. What is most impressive to me and makes me optimistic is people will rally around heroes do not capitulate. I know that in our daily lives people try to put pressure on us not to talk about this daily issue. The great cocktail parties do not what youre talking about your position on marriage. Well, do it. Wherever you are, the willing to stand up and proclaim the truth. Number two, we need to reject this decision. When i say reject, i mean we need to be blunt. This was an illegitimate decision. It was unjust, and its in line with decisions, as i said before. We should be quoting from the dissent regularly. The dissent in this decision is so good in so many ways. If you read the dissents, you are reading from our own justices that this is an unconstitutional mr. Luntz including the chief justice who took an abnormal approach of reading his own dissent s this is the same john roberts who the day before admitted he does not know the english like which by admitting he does not know what a state exchange actually means. He came out the next day and literally called his own court that he presides over an illegitimate body. Thats an example of what you are talking about. Mr. Brown right. The more we can do that in a clear we reject as, talk about Church Pastors step up, its critical that this notion of pastors and others retreating from the Public Square and in their minds only talking about the gospel as i said in the beginning, the gospel covers everything. If you are not willing to preach from scripture and talk about the truth we see in genesis that we see in revelations, then what are you willing to talk about . Marriage is a symbol of the truth of scripture. We have to talk about it. [applause] mr. Luntz i think most in the audience would agree with this statement if you are a pastor and you say youll knock about not talk about this stuff because you will only talk about the gospel, i can promise you on the authority of gods word, you are not talking about the gospel. You might be talking about a whole bunch of other things, but if you are not talking about the symbolic importance of what it means when two complement reversions of the species, male and female, come together liberals tell me all the time that jesus never spoke about marriage from the people who do not believe in the bible and do not open it up, its very clear. It does not get any clearer. Its a picture of the marriage of the bride and bridegroom in the church. It has huge symbolic importance in modeling gods love to the world. If you are a pastor and not talking about this because you are only talking about the gospel, i can promise you you are not talking about the gospel. [applause] mr. Brown i talked about affirming the truth about marriage, rejecting the decision. We also need to overturn the decision. This is not a decision we can allow to stand if we want to keep our republic. What i mean is if the court believes that it has the right to create out of thin air a new definition of marriage, to essentially put into the law that a square is a circle and a circle is a square, then as lincoln has said, we have given up our ability to have selfgovernment. We are not a country in which the judiciary gets to answer the key questions of our political life. That is not a republic. Therefore, the decision needs to be overturned. People ask how we will do that. One key way is we need a champion as president of the United States for marriage. [applause] im going to be very frank here and very blunt. There are some republicans that will talk the talk about marriage but will do nothing to walk the walk. We will not support them. We will not support someone who gives us lip service. So the old, you know im personally opposed but that we learned from the left on abortion is simply unacceptable for any public and to get up and say i believe marriage is a union of a man and woman, but the Supreme Court settled the decision. Did the Supreme Court settled the decision of when human life begins with roe . Did the Supreme Court settled the decision when the Supreme Court justice said three generations of imbeciles are enough and supported forced sterilization . Was the Supreme Court right, or should that decision have an overturned . The Supreme Court got it wrong. It got it wrong in dred scott. The creation of the Republican Party comes out of the fact that the Supreme Court got this fundamentally wrong and wanted, in the words of those who were at the first meeting of the Republican Party, to fight the twin relics of our tourism slavery, and polygamy. Thats the beginning of the Republican Party. To overturn the decision, if we elect a champion, that champion can appoint justices that will actually be constitutionalists. I guarantee you there will be marriage case before the Supreme Court. As already attempts to move forward with polygamy. There will be another decision. This decision could be overturned. Roe could be overturned. Also they need to support a constitutional amendment that will not allow the Supreme Court to say its the final arbiter. Some candidates have said they will not support that. Well, you need to support it. Its a clear path to overturning the decision. This may take five years. It may take 40 years, but when people look a you and say the fight is over, they claim the same thing after roe. 40 years later, the Prolife Movement is stronger than it has ever been, but its growing. We have a new prolife generation. We need the same thing when it comes to marriage. Finally, we need to contain the effects of the decision. This is not either or. Another problem we will face is some candidates are going to say we need to focus all our efforts on religious liberty now and not worry about overturning. When i say contain, until we overturn this decision the First Amendment and religious liberty will not be completely protected. This is a direct threat. The decision has to be overturned, but there are immediate things we can do to contain some of the damage. One of those is the First Amendment defense act, which is before congress. Senator cruz and others have been strong proponents in any way the government can discriminate against, they will stop the marriage against a man and a woman, and we need to be immediately contacting our senators and congressmen. Weve got one third of the senate, that is relatively quick, it got Rachel Maddow saying, they are gaining steam on this, weve got to stop them. You guys can make a difference. Contact your senators. Contact your congressmen. Lets get other practical legislations that attacked our religious liberties that protect our religious liberties. I would even say that some on her own side dont share our views. I am a realist and i am going to say we are not going to overturn it tomorrow. We could overturn it if we get a really great president relatively soon, but it could last four years. Youve got her member the Frederick Douglass he was he was very depressed and was thinking about moving away from the United States to haiti and actually had packed up because he thought that Abraham Lincoln had betrayed the cause of overturning slavery. And he gets his whole family packed up, he thinks that everything is lost, he thinks that they can is not focusing enough on the fact that the evil of slavery is a blight on the country and that it has to be overturn and if the war is going to be fought, it is not going to be the war about protecting a sacred union, it is about protecting slavery. So he has given up. 13 days later about two or three days before he is getting ready to get on a ship lincoln signs the emancipation proclamation. So the point at which you think that things have gotten the worst, at the point in which you think that you start to accept the idea that maybe what we are doing is impossible, number one, we know through our lord that all things are possible. [applause] brian number two, have a smile on your face. As bad as things are, convert your righteous anger to action. Understand that god put you in this moment of history for some reason. Very few people in the course of Human History yet to stand up for such obvious such such such truths, such moral good, and there is nothing as beautiful as the union between one man and one woman. There are people who have been in history who stood up against overwhelming odds and have possibly been persecuted. Rejoice, rejoice in your being a persecuted. Rejoice, because my view is that when the American People see the people stand up and they see that some people are actually suffering for the truth of marriage then we will start to see people change their opinion then we will start to see people stand up and vote, and in the very process of persecution, the American People will send up and say, we got this wrong, we are on the right side, we are going to overturn this decision. Thats what i think, that is what i am committing my life too, and i hope that you do the same. [applause] mr. Luntz folks, as we close this out, i hope you will join me. Dick and betty, i saw them here today, and they are in our own backyard, and they handled a similar persecution with more class with more with more class than frankly i could be capable of. Lets stand up and give them a hand and that is what courage under fire and grace under pressure really means. Thank you. Brian thank you. [applause] announcer announcer announcer please welcome back brian brown frank luntz and well, Mike Huckabee welcome Mike Huckabee. [applause] mr. Luntz so in following what has been talked about in the last few minutes, and a recognize that people want to say both, again, i want by applause what you think is a greater threat to americas teacher future. And by the way, the reason that i do this is that we have a hundred 40 people 140 people sitting up. Writing about this sitting up here writing about this. When you think about a threat to america, what is more of a threat to you . The collapse of the culture and the family or the economic collapse and the loss of jobs . Which is a greater threat to americas future . By applause, who thinks it is a family and culture . [applause] mr. Luntz ok, we got it. You just cut into 15 seconds of his time. I dont have to ask the other side. So what does the next president do . I dont think you believe that we should be legislated morality and idle we should be passing it by executive order and i dont think we should be passing it by executive order. Governor, what should we do . Mr. Huckabee we legislate the morality of speeding by telling them how fast they can drive on a highway, and how fast they drive is what they decide to do. But lets talk about why the crowd reacted like that. Most people in the room understand that the most basic unit of government is not the city council and it is certainly lot not the state legislature. It is certainly not the congress. The most basic family basic unit of government is the family. A mother and a father raising the next generation. Those parents are there to train that generation to be, the replacements for them. And all of the basic things that we learn about how to behave with each other how not to steal, to kill, to hurt people, july, we learn in that governmental unit called the family. We know that there are people in the donor class saying that they dont want to hear about the morality stuff, lets just talk about the economy. I can tell you a very specifically about the fact that the breakdown of social order is directly proportionate to the cost of government. We have a lot of government and the cost of it because if people dont behave and to self govern then we all start saying, lets get somebody to stop this. And the next thing you know, we have more government and it costs more money. We need a strong, moral fiber in this country and we need people growing up in this country understanding that they have to govern themselves or else someone else will have to step in and govern them instead of themselves. [applause] mr. Luntz is washington inherently immoral . Mr. Huckabee washington the word inherent is operative, it is operatively immoral because the donor class feeds the Political Class at the expense of the working class. The reason we dont see a lot of changes between the democrats and republicans in power is because the same donor class that throws the money at the Political Class expects the dance to be done and it is. Why do you think that the republicans, after being sent to washington to fight executive overreach on obamacare gave the president and more power on the trade agreement than 74 of republicans opposed . Why did they do that . Because the donor class wanted them to. If you ask me if there is an inherent evil, it has perhaps become that, but the operational breakdown of people not understanding who they are supposed to be working for and they are supposed to be working for the people like the ones sitting in this room and like the 5 million who have lost jobs in manufacturing since 2007, not as working for a handful of donor class who then it faced a ruling class, and that is what is breaking down of the economy, along with a total lack of confidence that people have in the government now that it is completely capitulating on every thing. [applause] mr. Luntz obviously, the president is the commander in chief, but is he the moral leader of the country as well . Mr. Huckabee by default, the president always sets the tone. Would we be in this position with samesex marriage if the president had maintained throughout his presidency the position he took in 2008 when he said to pastor rick warren at the Saddleback Church that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman and he went on to say that he believed that because as a christian, it was in the bible and god was in the mix. Suddenly when the donors pushed him to take a different position, which he did, and by the way, there is only one of three explanations as to how he could arrive at that new conclusion since he said it was in the bible either he was lying in 2008, he has been lying since 2012, or the bible has been rewritten and he was the only one i got the new version but i have the new version and it is the only one that has not been rewritten yet. [applause] mr. Huckabee so let me mr. Luntz so which is it . So which is it . Mr. Huckabee the president certainly sets the mood mr. Luntz so which is it . Was he lying in 2008 or in 2012 . Mr. Huckabee while i know the scripture has not been rewritten, so he used religion, he used faith, as a way to cause people to say, he is ok, he things like we do, when in fact he did not. Now here is what i want to just go back to you asked what role the president has. Just remember, when we were all in a funk after jimmy carter, we had a president the reminded us that america was a good nation, in fact, a great nation. That we were a city on a hill. A light shining to the rest of the world. We were a beacon of freedom and opportunity. He made us love this country again. I think sometimes we underestimate the role that an articulate president can make in changing the mood, the spirit the attitude, the direction of the country. A lot of the job of the chief executive, whether he is a governor or a president , is to help articulate the vision and the message. And yes, i think we can go to a very different place with a president who not only says it but more importantly, frank, he actually has to believe it. [applause] mr. Luntz so again, if we can line up any questions for governor huckabee, please line up at one of the four microphones. My question is, what is happening inside st. Louis inside baltimore, around cleveland, in new york . I dont remember a time in my work when the division by color by ethnicity, has been so great. You are not only a man of political conviction, you are a man of faith. What can the next president do so that we dont have anymore baltimores . Baltimores . So we dont have anymore new yorks or clevelands . Mr. Huckabee what we can learn from baltimore and cleveland and new york, we had charlson first. We saw what gods love did for people who have their faith and who offer forgiveness instead of anger and hostility. The folks at the church in charleston gave us the most vivid picture of what gods grace looks like in a long time. That ought to be a model. [applause] mr. Huckabee frank let me add, we dont have a skin problem in america, we have a sin problem in america. That is the root and the heart and the cause of racial strife and it cannot be reconciled by the government stepping in and making pronouncements. There is a prescription. Bob bender plots bob vanderplotz wrote a book about it. If my people, who were called by my name and were humbled themselves and prayed and turned from their wicked ways, then he says we will hear from heaven and he will heal our land. I think people will forget that god will heal this land, but he wont do it if we dont meet the conditions for him to heal it. [applause] mr. Luntz will you do something i am going to do something i have never done before and i dont know if it is going to work. Mr. Huckabee and are going to do it to me . [laughter] mr. Luntz i am going to speak for about 10 seconds to get your attention. Knock came in the shoulder if he is not paying attention if he is in the first three rows, look up because you cant look away. Tell me the truth. How many people in these first three rows here attend church at least once a week . 3, 4, 5 6, 7, 8 9 and there are what, 400 people in here . I wonder if there is a disconnect when you speak of faith . They are human beings, they are citizens, nine of them raised their hands, what does that mean . Mr. Huckabee i do think there is a difference between those who often give commentary on her culture and those who are the representatives of so much of our culture and content of the country. I just want to say that id find that i find it generally that people who dont even meet me treat me unfairly in the media. Some are more responsible than others. Even when they do treat me in ways that i dont think are altogether great, i never put them inside of a rope and pull tightly and hope that it will keep them away. I let them ask me questions. I dont think you can be president of the United States and not face the music, not only of the press but frankly, i dont think people deserve to be president if they cant go to a town hall in iowa and answer the last question in the room of people who make up a group like this. [applause] mr. Luntz i will let you know one other point because i saw some of you there, last night at cedar rapids, some of you guys were in the back of the room and here in ames iowa, some of you are in the front of the room, so that ought to tell you something. [applause] mr. Luntz lets go to microphone number four in the back. Hello, governor. The notion that government does not legislate morality is a false assumption. If we even look at Something Like the tax code, which says it is ok to take from earner a and give to questionable receiver b there is a moral implication there. Government is about morality and saying it what is right and wrong. So my question is this. Weve talked, candidates have talked a great deal about our National Security, whether it is isis or iran, whether it is our southern border, whether it is the collapse of our economy, and all of those things we need help with. But the big thing is, we have killed 16 million 60 million unborn, not killed, but murdered, 60 million unborn since 1973. What must our next president do . Because this is a problem. If there is a god in heaven, how can he bless a nation like that . Thank you. Mr. Luntz wonderful question. Mr. Huckabee it goes to the heart of what i quoted from in second chronicles, he he chronicles, he cant bless our nation if he would want to unless we repent. Lets be honest. This nation has committed grievous sins in the matter in which it has treated others. It is not about abortions. I think we have missed the point here. It is about how we treat the worth of every single human being. Is there any person who intrinsic worth and value . Who lacks intrinsic worth and value . The idea that we are all equal is the reason that we have the opportunity to be americans. But we say that some people dont have a work and that some people are extendable and that they are disposable expendable and that they are disposable. If we said the captain of the Football Team cannot be the captain because he has down syndrome, which i cannot believe anyone would say because it is so brazen, but if we decide one baby should die and one baby should not because of social inconvenience or economic situations, if that is how we value the worth of another human being, we have certainly forgotten who we are as a country. There is no excellent nation apart from the providence of god. There is simply no explanation for this nation. Job god, i believe, has a purpose for us, but we could lose that purpose if we continue to violate the very importance of life and if we fail to recognize the dignity of those. Life is more than just a gestational. Just nation all gestation gal period. I will defend life from the very point of conception to the very point of death. [applause] mr. Luntz microphone, the front microphone . Hello i am great and my question is from a statement. That statement is that i am sick and tired of officials asking about Border Security and the sovereignty of our country and then the answer is dealing around amnesty. My question is, without even talking about amnesty and the aftereffects, what what, what can you do or should the next president do mr. Huckabee one in the same. [laughter] to shut the screen door on the sovereignty of our nation . Mr. Huckabee i have admitted that i will secure the border within the first year of my presidency. If that sounds audacious, let me just remind you that 73 years ago, we built a road between British Columbia and alaska, 1700 mile road in the most difficult weather conditions, and we did it in less than a year. There is no way that you can tell me with the engineering capability that we have today that didnt exist 73 years ago, that we wouldnt have the ability to secure our border. If the president says this is a priority, we will do it. And i will do it. [applause] mr. Luntz in the back microphone three. Governor, one of the issues that really needs to be addressed is education. You know, it really has an impact on future leaders. As common core is going through the new legislature in congress, what will the next president do in making sure that each child will get a good education . Mr. Huckabee i am passionate about music and the arts for every child, but i also believe that the federal government has no role in dictating how the government how the education is handled. That is the decision between local government, mom dad, the local government, and the state. [applause] mr. Luntz then i am going to push a little bit further. You told us what the federal government shouldnt do. What should the federal government do when it comes to education . Mr. Huckabee virtually nothing because there is no constitutional precedents for it. At most frank, at most, the federal government should make sure that there is a clearinghouse of best practices so that the state is doing something that is remarkably helpful in Something Like music and art programs, to make sure that every students talent gets touch, that every other state could borrow from those i he is those ideas. In the last 10 and a half years, there have been promises for the federal government funding so the point is those dollars should never be moved to the federal government anyway. They should have never left the taxpayers of that state and they should remain in that state. [applause] mr. Luntz having worked with people in every one of the 50 states, there is a difference in the schools, and i am going to pick on two states, there is a difference between mississippi and massachusetts. The students of massachusetts do no more. They have a higher degree of reading, a higher degree of writing, a higher degree of math. Is it fair to the students of mississippi that it year after year, they will never be as competitive as the students of massachusetts because they will never be that good . Mr. Huckabee first of all before you go to mississippi, somebody better taste your grits before you sit down for breakfast. [laughter] mr. Huckabee second thing, if the federal government intervened, then it would not be any better. My point is that the federal government has been intervening for several generations and it hasnt made anything better, it has made everything worse. Let mississippi a run its own schools. [applause] mr. Luntz i have learned never to fight with him. [laughter] mr. Luntz in the final one minute, is there a message, this is the most negative, this is the most pessimistic generation since the survey of research 90 years ago, but you are someone of hope. Why should they believe that our best years are still ahead of us . Mr. Huckabee is this my closing statement . [laughter] mr. Luntz yes it is. Mr. Huckabee well, let me take advantage of it. [applause] mr. Huckabee one minute, right . Let me say thank you, frank, for moderating the spirit there is a libel verse that says in the end, you shall be saved, and i think after today, you guys deserve that. President s are not elected. Elected for what they expect, president s are elected for what happens that no one expected. But the seminal moments in history that no one saw coming, no matter how prepared or how studied they were, you are really electing a president not simply for what he knows, but for what he can do when confronted with what no one knows. You are electing a person who will not only lead when managing a crisis but will also give the country a sense of calm and assurance, and to give that country the ability to recognize that the god that we have been founded on is the one that we may have to depend upon in that seminal moment when something of catastrophic proportions happens. But before that person, and i sincerely hope that you give me the chance to be that person, but before that person gets to that position, they have to get elected. And to get elected in the next election cycle, there is a good likelihood frank, that the republican nominee is going to face hillary clinton, which means he will or she will will face bill and hillary clinton. I want to remind these people here today that in the 373 republicans running for president [laughter] mr. Huckabee there is only one who has consistently fought the clinton political machine in the most partisan state in america during the 1990s after they had built up the machine over 25 years. Only one person who has successfully not only fought against that political machine in every election and every is a tuition of government but can sicily defeated and transformed it, and most importantly, lived to tell about it. [laughter] [applause] mr. Luntz thank you, guys, god bless. Rank you thank you, esther huckabee. Mr. Huckabee. Mr. Huckabee thank you, frank