Transcripts For CSPAN Sen. Hawley Remarks At Young Americas Foundation 20240714

Radio app. The Young Americans Foundation Also heard from missouri senator josh hawley. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. If you could all take your seats, we will get started with our next speaker. My name is katrina shaw. I am an intern at young Americas Foundation. As the principal Outreach Organization in the conservative movement, and Americas Foundation is committed to ensuring increasing numbers of americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a Strong National defense, three enterprise, and traditional values. This afternoon, i have the great honor of introducing our next speaker, United States senator josh hawley of missouri. Raised in rural missouri, senator josh hawley previously served as missouris attorney general. He quickly earned a reputation for battling Big Government and big business, special interests, organized crime, and anyone who would threaten the wellbeing of missourians. Llbeing of missouri. In 2002, he graduated from Stanford University and from Yale Law School in 2006. He then moved back home with his wife where he became the proud parents of two sons. He is recognized as one of the leading constitutional lawyers. Hes litigated as the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal courts of appeals and in state court fighting for the peoples liberties. He previously thought obamacare at the Supreme Court and won as one of the lead attorneys in landmark hobby lobby case. Shes also taken on big opioid manufacturers, crackdown on Human Trafficking in misery and to step up to the tech launching investigations of the most powerful companies in the world, google and facebook, their data and the First Amendment. She serves on the Senate Committees on the judiciary, armed services, Homeland Security and governmental affairs, Small Business and entrepreneurship and the special committee on aging. Please join me in welcoming the youngest senator in america, senator holly. [applause] [cheering] thank you so much. It is great to be here with a room full of thoughtful, serious, young energetic folks. A little bit of difference from my day job in the United States senate. Im 39yearsold this year, and thats about the age people start looking for things to make them feel young again. Maybe youve got older brothers or sisters or maybe your parents were that age but now you know why at 39 i decided to run for the United States senate where the average age is dead. [laughter] i found out when i got sworn in that they gave a pin that we are supposed to wear that it goes right up here and the nifty thing about it is that it also doubles as a life alert button. [laughter] how many of you have been to the cafeteria come to the senate because i figured out in the Senate Dining room its actually a cafeteria is about the average age. [laughter] its great to be here with you today to talk about the future of the country and to be looking out at all of you that represent the future of the country. I was elected as the youngest senator of america and i hope to be able to serve long enough to see the beginning of the 21st century. Century. And i will tell you what i mean by that. Its been 19 years since the 20th century ended, 19 years. Is it too much to ask the 21st century be allowed to begin because our politics and our record and too much of what goes on in this town and capitol hill you could close your eyes and you may as well be in the 1970s or the 1980s. The political establishment of both parties have become so off to fight its like we are trapped in amber and meanwhile the needs of the country have gone forward. If it was about anything that was about the American People saying the political establishments have failed, but politics have failed, its time for something new and that is what you ar youre here for. [applause] [cheering] heres the problem while the Political Class has been rehearsing and rehashing the same old debates with the same rhetoric from decades past from before you were born and i was born thats been happening. The Political Class has drifted into a consensus with other elements across the country. A consensus that has too often let down the people who sent me here to let down the people who built this country, let down the people who defend america. I called them the Great American middle of our society that people who wake up every day, go to work, work hard or they can come into their family can read their kids at night, thankful for their blessings of the kind of people who go donate to help families that live half a world away the kind o from the kind oi suspect you know in the kind of places where you grew up. These are the kind of people that are too often have been neglected and overlooked if his interests havent been spoken for in this town or politics into the Political Classes to get into a consensus that has several principles that you will recognize because i know that as the conventional wisdom on most of our College Campuses today the sort of reigning consensus, the conventional wisdom of the leadership in the country tells us that things like patriotism are dangerous and nationalism and the good things about america but narrowminded. It could even be debated but it is too narrow of a focus. The same consensus is they need to pursue in the face economic globalization and integration at all costs open markets, open borders, open trade, open everything no matter whether it is actually good for American National security or American Families were American Workers with american principles. These are the same people who told us we need to have open immigration at whatever levels so we can have more labor in the country that unfortunately drives down prices and wages. These are the same people who want you on your College Campuses to make sure you dont see anything that offends anybody for heaven sake who say we cant use trigger words, we need to use trigger warnings, whatever that means. This is th the easily consensus that has governed the politics for too long and that it has produced as a politics of elite ambition. Heres what the leaders have said to the country and what theyve said to Middle America for too long now. They said if you want to go and start a tech company in silicon valley, we are all for you. If you want to become the lead like us can go to an elite university committed to the graduat, go to graduateschool ay point of view in the world if you want to put career achievement over community and you think change is more important than tradition and you are skeptical of things like faith and family, thats great if that is the view that you hold we are for you and our politics will help you get there and succeed, but what if your ambition is to start a tech company. But if its to work in the family business, but if your ambition is to raise a family in the town where you grew up, but if its too create something that you can pass on to your kids. Buif one of your most prized values is the belief that we are a good and decent people whose work is worth celebrating. If thats you come up in this town and the leadership of the country for too long has said you are on your own and you are either backward or maybe just pathetic, but they dont have anything to say to you. And its time for that to change. The 2016 election represents the people of this country from the middle of our society, the backbone of the country standing up and saying we want to be heard, we want to be respected, we want th want to extend the tr the principle it was founded on, and we are going to do something about it. i would say to the political establishment of this town that as another american senator once said, the world is changing. The old era is ending, and the old ways will undo. It is an era that we must open now. The 21st century that we must in 19 years late, but late is better than never. Its time to begin the 21st century to actually focus on the problems of this era, the challenges of this date address this power so the country can be renewed and strengthened for the country that is ahead. We need a country focused just on elite ambition for a politics focused on renewing the strength of the country in the great middle of our society. We need a politics of National Renewal. And building the public excited just to do is the great challenge of this era and it will be the greatest challenge of your era for the years that are to come. Websites that look like . Itits time that we stood up and they said government by experts and administrators an unelected elites that are confident they know better than the American People who are confident they know better than the constitution, who were confident they can be in control rather than the voters its time that we stood up and said enough of that. This allegiance between the Big Government and big business. For too long, some of the Biggest Companies in the country, multinational corporations, the same people who send jobs overseas to china than happy to invest in the Chinese Market but wont invest in workers here in this country who will raise wages for workers here in this country who are located in the United States but would never say that they are an American Company for too long to any of the companies have gotten too many handouts from the government. Its tim time to put an end to e crony capitalism and Big Government and big business. Increasingly, the workers are failing to invest in the econo economy. The official answer to us as conservatives is just shut up about everything that you believe and we want tax breaks and other government giveaways. For the free market its time to these Big Companies that are caught in flight deals in the government were actually held accountable, and it begins by the way with big tech. Nobodys got more of a sweetheart deal from the federal government then the Big Technology companies. Facebook, google, twitter. Now they are saying they should be able to decide whether or not conservatives get to speak of the platform. With Hillary Clinton int in the campaign overwhelmingly in favor leftleaning world news outlets and disfavored actively conservative leaning and conservative libertarian news outlets. They exercised enormous power over the information that we consume over our channels of communication with each other and get the answer to us, the statement to us is we want to give all of the government benefits. We want to get all the special privileges that we dont want to be accountable at all. Its time to stand up and say thats not going to have them anymore. Its time that we hold them accountable and stood up for the amendment if we stop the and wee censorship in these Big Companies. College campuses are trying to regulate speech and shut down speech as they disagree with it. This is a kind of censorship that we havent seen in this country for decades. Many we have never seen it is such a conservative form and its time that we send our speech and our views are just as valuable and just as legitimate as any other side. We are committed to the First Amendment. It used to be there was a time in this country when the left lt said they were the great defenders of the First Amendment and at least you could count on them if they disagree with your views at least you could count on them to defend the right to speak. Im afraid that isnt true today. And im afraid you are experiencing it on your College Campuses. Its time that we demand the colleges and universities especially those that receive the federal monies, taxpayer money that they actually abide by the First Amendment, but they dont disfavored students are conservatives, they dont disfavored the students of faith that they allow the real, open and honest debate so that the Constitutional Values and principles can be expressed in enacted and go forward. And i want to say to you you have such a vital role to play in this your courage, your willingness to challenge the status quo on campus, and your willingness to engage in the debate, to force a tough conversations, to engage in the new dialogue is absolutel dialo. If theres one thing that i could say to you on this score, it is be of good courage. Dont be silenced. Dont stand down. Dont be intimidated because the future of the country, quite literally depends on your willingness to stand up and be heard and to make your views known doing it. The future of the country depends on it. Let me also say give yourselves a round of applause. [applause] politics focused on the Great American middle in a politics focused on the National Renewal also has to be areas of the challenges that we face abroad. And im thinking especially of the challenge we face with china. Lets be honest, china has for decades now stolen our jobs, spy on our people, ripped off our technologies, theyve attempted to build their middle class on the backs of our middle class and theyve attempted to build their military on the backs of the United States middleclass, and im sorry to say that they have enjoyed some pretty fair success. We are now facing each other in the state is going to be perhaps the greatest foreignpolicy challenge of the 21st century. Its not just National Security challenge, it is an economic challenge as well and we need a policy in this country. We need a politics of the country focused on getting the tape jobs here on returning investment here. Weve been building things in the country again and making things in this country. We have a problem if we live in a world where you have to get a graduate degree on top of that just to get a decent job and be able to support your family, that isnt a future that includes most americans. Thats not a future that will keep america strong. Its not a future that will allow us to compete with our foreign competitors for the 21st centuries of the need to pursue the policy that renews and strengthens the middle of our society into the heart of our economy. That means standing up to those like china and it seems stopping the intent to manipulate the currency and theres. It means bringing back jobs from overseas and creating new jobs in the places where americans live as you shouldnt have to move to a city somewhere in order to get a job at which you could support a family and build a community. These are the key challenges of a century and the key challenges around which the politics of the renewal must be built. The challenges that we face are very significant. In the politics of washington, d. C. Are very broken, but having said all that, im very optimistic. One of the reasons ive optimistic is because of you and because im from the middle of our country in the middle of our society. I know the people who go to work everyday and provide for their families an and friends as famiy businesses and volunteer in their churches and support our local schools and serve in the pta. The people i suspect who raised you another kind of people that you want to be. I know them and i can say with total confidence that in the heart of our society, american strength has not failed. American Leadership Class for too long has failed. The Political Class has failed. At the heart of the American Society hasnt failed. Theres a tremendous strength. Theres tremendous strength waiting to be called upon, waiting to be unleashed, waiting to be renewed. From winston churchill, a hero of mine who once said if we open a conflict between the present and past we are liable to lose the future and must be our great concern because the future that we must fight and win the country is asking for a Better Future. They voted for a Better Future in 2016. They voted for a Better Future than 2018. In 2020 whe 2020 when theyd ret donald trump asked th as the prf the United States. [applause] the need of the country is the calling of our time and the needs of the country are the ore calling of their lives. The American People are saying we cannot go on as we have in the past. We cannot continue down the old path. We must do something new and change our politics have changed the town. We must renew the country and your help is vital to. I just want to say to you i hope you will choose with your tremendous talent i think the talent in this room and i hope hyou will continue doing what yu are doing now, which is to be engaged beyond that to serve. Choose to serve in the places where you are. Choose to serve where you have an opportunity. Choose to serve in the society that have a voice who deserved the representation who needs champions and together we can win the future of the country. Thank you so much for having me. [applause] thank you for that question. [applause] my biggest critique of big tech sites the fact they want to shut down the speech and despite the fact theyve got rich on taxpayer dollars was innovation have they really given us. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing before all of us were born. Its a great comment for the country. Think about what the tech sector gave to america in a decade in the 1960s, just a decade, one decade to think about what the sector gave to america coming and what is it now that in the last 15, 20 years the people who say to the greatest minds of the country have given this country, what are their Great Innovations, autoplay, ever additional refinements of the behavioral andbased platform they are taking your data and your information without your consent or knowledge they are selling your information to third parties without your input and then trying to get you to spend as much time as possible on the platform so they can take even more stuff and so the things that belong to you and this is the Great Innovation of the 21st century. We need to expect. We need the technological process that solves the challenges and create new jobs and addresses the desperate need for medical innovation at a. The desperate needs in this country and the technical sector to step up. Thats why im sure they spend a lot of time coming and i know theyve made a lot of money figuring out how to refine the behavioral base. I think we should expect and ask them and push them to do better. Now, we cant do all of that into law. If what we can do as consumers and citizens wh and say we expet more from you. We should expect protects peoples privacy and their property. My view of big tech is that theres nothing thats more valuable to you in this digital age than your personal data and information. You cant get a job without it. You cant get a loan without it. You can do anything without it. Yet, it is totally exposed. Tech companies have total control over it. Thats why i think we need to take steps that will get you Property Rights and your information. If you want to give it to google and facebook, thats your business. If you want to contend with that, totally fine. If you dont mind being tracked online pundits find that it ought to be something that you consent to do. To get your personal data back from the Tech Companies you ought to be able to get it back. They should actually have to delete it if you ask them to do so. So, im fighting to hold them accountable to protect your information and your property is to increase competition. This is the final thing i will say. If we need more competition in the tech sector, for those of us believe in the free market, and in the open markets, we believe in the value of competition. We want more choices and more option is more competition and innovation. How should the freedom to be included we had a long debate in the country about addiction over cigarettes and alcohol and so forth in all of those were very heavily regulated. Alcohol, cigarettes, drug use of course heavily regulated, but in the technical sector i think what we want to see is prickly as the father of two little boys and former attorney of the state of misery, i dont want the Tech Companies stifling competition from taking our property or excluding consumers without their knowledge and consent. So if they are going to build a Business Model that is based on taking our personal information, then they better tell us that is what theyre doing and they better give us the option to say yes or no. That is one of the reasons i introduced the socalled do not track at which would give every Single Person in the room and around the country to say i want to go online and click on a button that says i do not consent to you tracking the. [applause] into the website or the service, the platform still has to provide you the basic services and you have a right to continue to use it without being tracked. Ive also introduced legislation that would allow you to get your data back. I can tell you we are experiencing again this week with more news at the data breach at capital week. Its amazing the amount of data that is out there in public that is being sold. My view is you ought to be able to consent to that or say no and give it back so if you would like to have your data be needed if you dont want facebook or google sitting on it, twitter, you want to be able to go to demand a say deleted and they should have to. It should be optional. They should have to do it. I know that the Mainstream Media they call themselves, i know that they dont believe that the Tech Companies censor. They dont think it has been settled but thats not actually what the evidence says. This is the Technical Companies put a firm on th from the scalen favor of liberal views and my view is they are going to get a special deal from government. If google wants to be a left entity and advance a liberal point of view, thats fine. This is america, this is a free country an and a very private company. But this they shouldnt get the special subsidy that they get in the form of section 230 this is dealing with the power of the companies and the power of other Multinational Companies like them to the base of the country that dont reallbut dont reallr themselves citizens of america to partner with the government and that repressive regime when it suits them and while refusing to invest in the workers, dealing with the challenges i think its one of the great problems of the era of doing it in a way that protects the competition and promotes and protects freedom is one of the great challenges of our time. In the context of protecting an individuals freedom, how far can the government go in terms of limiting what they can do, where is the line fax with regards to censorship, if a spec for instance, let me tell you what they tell me, facebook and google and twitterr have all appeared before me in congress and said under oath that they never censor content based on the political viewpoint. Thats their standard we dont do that. We dont ever censor content based on the political viewpoint. Why dont you open your books to in order to improve it to me. They wont do that. So listen, if you want to censor based on the political viewpoint, if you want to speak your self and advance a point of view, thats fine. The companies do that in america. They are totally fine. But you shouldnt ge get the special exemptions the law correctly gives them because special exemptions the law currently gives are premised on the fact they themselves arent speaking its just other people who speak on their platforms. To keep it off their platforms and otherwise allow other people because if they dont speak in advance a political viewpoint, its time to go find them at the new yorthenewthe new yorkt every day thats fine they are protected by the First Amendment, but they shouldnt get special exemption for the subsidies that they get into current law. [applause] you brought up the threat china poses so i was wondering what is the best way to try to get him tget intoplayfair while minimize damage they do to us . Week to stop the manipulation in the currency market. China has been doing this for quite some time trying to drive down the currency in the drive n the value of hours. What does it do commit prices us out of the market. One of the reason we have the trade deficit is it because the workers are good at what they do. Im tired of hearing from the media including the conservative media workers are stupid and lazy and get with the program we wouldnt have to trade deficit. But this isnt the case. That isnt true. [applause] would say this for the record American Workers of the most productivare the mostproductived of the best workers in the world and most innovative people in the world and we will compete with anybody. [applause] but, when you have the intervening systematically privilege their own products into disfavor hours, its hard to compete for the president is trying to address this and that is the right thing to do we have to insist on trade agreements as are enforceable where they will actually truly open market and not shut us out, but we also need to address the manipulation of the currencies, and i propose legislation just actually this week that would give the Administration New tools to too often we needed to invest here and we need them to drive the production pearce of the workers have a chance to grow into compete and im confident that if we do those thing i note is the left that does not like us talking about american exceptionalism. We are not supposed to talk about being a unique country with a unique history and a unique purpose in the world, but the fact is that all of those things are true. We are unique country with a unique history and purpose in the world. [applause] and that purpose is not yet finished, and our history is far from being written. We have much work to do yet as a nation, so it is time that we renewed the sources of our strength and that we face with confidence this new era that is and we faceawning with confidence this new era, because i am confident that this next century is going to be amazing and america will lead the way. Thank you so much for having me. God bless you. [applause] here is a look at our live coverage thursday. On cspan at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, the Senate Judiciary Committee Meets to consider legislation that would change the asylum progress for migrants trying to enter the u. S. That is followed by a discussion from the Hudson Institute about combating economic threats. At 7 00, President Trump hold a rally in cincinnati as part of his 2020 reelection campaign. On cspan two, the senate is back at 9 30 a. M. Eastern to vote on a budget deal that also suspends the debt limit for the next two years. On cspan3, there is a discussion on the political situation in puerto rico following the recent resignation of puerto ricos governor. Later, we hear from senators ted cruz and rick scott speaking at a student conference hosted by the young Americas Foundation