God bless the young americas foundation. [cheering and applause] ]audience chanting usa, usa so, 17 minutes ago, nancy pelosi sent out a security alert. Discovered there were a bunch of young troublemakers in town. [cheering and applause] sen. Cruz she said she heard this gathering was dangerous. Infectious. Harmful ifthat are you are a Big Government autocrat. Dangerouss are also lefty. Are a woke, preciouse an oh so hollywood celebrity. If you are a university administrator, the ideas that are represented in this room are terrifying. For those watching at home on cspan, there are no safe spaces in this room. [cheering and applause] sen. Cruz tyranny has been with us since the dawn of time. Big government, the power of the government to control your life has been with us since the dawn of time. Let me tell you, the men and women who gathered here, hollywood and the universities, the 22cy pelosi, and dwarves on the debate stage. [laughter] they are all right to be terrified of the ideas you believe in. Give you twog to words of encouragement and then will open the septa q a. Open this up to q and a. I want to start with number one, defend liberty. To standa core ground on defend liberty. Liberty works. Liberty is powerful. Human spirit,hes yeah worksway hell as well. [cheering and applause] sen. Cruz they say our country is in the middle of a vast debate, a vast argument about which direction to go. Has goneratic party stark raving nuts. That is a medical term, by the way. [laughter] they are galloping so far left, but the big debate we are having is socialism versus Free Enterprise area i got to say that it is terrifying, we have all seen the stats that show the up to 50 of juncker you believe that socialism is a good idea. Booing]owd sen. Cruz each of you here are on the front lines taking the argument on. Manifest has been a disaster, and absolute failure. All over the face of the globe. Socialism has been responsible for suffering, and misery, and poverty, and death. Billions across the planet earth. Venezuela. At the venezuela and the 1950s was the fourth wealthiest country in the world. Number four. Gdp per capita. ,hen you had the socialists hugo chavez, nicolas maduro, in, take over the economy, destroy the hopes and future of that country. The people in venezuela right now are literally eating out of trash cans in the alleyways. That is what socialism brings you. Ronald reagan had a great way of putting it. ,he middle of the cold war the things that people never seem to notice that liberals never seem to notice is that the guns as a cuban, i have a different way to put it. The thing that liberals never seems to notice down to the florida keys is the rafts are all going the one direction. [applause] just once, i would like to see some hollywood liberal head down to florida, jump on and inflatable raft, had 90 miles south to the socialist utopia that is communist cuba. Freedom works, and by the way, with young people, what young person in your right mind would want government to control every aspect of your life . Talk about an argument to use with your peers, with your classmates. When you see each of these democrats saying the government should be in charge of everything, of the economy, health care, education, what they are saying is some nameless, faceless, bureaucrat and the Windowless Office in washington dc should control your life. Weve got instead a message that is much more powerful than that. Which is that the person in charge of your life is you. [cheering and applause] sen. Cruz and freedom across the board, it should be your education should be your choice, what kind of education you want, your career should be your choice, what you do with your life, your speech could be your choice, what you say, your faith should be your choice, who you worship, or liberty should be your choice, what you say. Not some dam bureaucrat in washington. [cheering and applause] sen. Cruz sen. Cruz i remember in the 2016 campaign, i would encounter young bernie supporters. You can usually scare them out of a place by telling them they have to get a job. That will clear them out of a room. [laughter] but, i would fairly regularly tell them, i would say, you know, i agree with bernie. They look at me really puzzled, like what do you mean you agree with bernie . Look, bernie says washington is corrupt. He says both parties are in on it, both parties they get in bed with big business and special interests and lobbyists, and they benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of the working men and women in this country. You know what, bernies absolutely right. That is whats happening. The only place i disagree with bernie is on the solution. If washington is corrupt, why on earth would you want to give washington more power . Defend liberty is powerful, and by the way, if you care about social justice, the left likes to talk about how wonderfully they care. Listen, i care deeply about social justice. The greatest enemy poverty has ever seen in the history of the universe has been the american Free Enterprise system. You want to lift people out of poverty . You dont take over the economy. You dont put the government in charge of the economy. Instead, you unchain and you unleash free men and women to start businesses to pursue their dreams, their passion, and no society has lifted more people out of poverty than the United States of america and Free Enterprise. [cheering and applause] all right. Second thing i want to encourage you. Have fun. Look, frankly too many republicans, too many conservatives, they act like they got a stick inserted somewhere dont belong. [laughter] just lighten up and laugh. Would it kill you to have some fun . Someone of weeks ago, on twitter tweeted out i mean that you can find all over the place that is ted cruz eight my son. Ate my son [laughter] i saw it and i promptly read. And said, he was delicious. [applause] and listen, have fun matters ,specially now because the left they are so darn angry. How many radical leftists does it take to screw in a life lightbulb . Thats not fun ny i encourage you all to spend some time on youtube going back in time to one comedy was actually funny. Left is so politicized that comedy has been killed. Arelatenight hosts unwatchable now. Every joke on latenight tv consists of i hate donald trump. We get it. Ok afternald trump, time, its like, is there anything else you can joke about . Any, could anybody think of comedy that could be done of the democratic debates we are watching . Yeah sen. Cruz i am probably the who person in this room has in fact received a special backrub from joe biden. [laughter] [cheering and applause] sen. Cruz you know, sometimes little puppy dogs behave like that, but you can usually train them out of it. You know, how about a game show. Lets give away free stuff, you know, with bernie in the middle. I think that should be free. Of course thats free. Everything. We have a magic money tree [laughter] a couple of years ago, i debated bernie three different times on cnn, we did town halls. And we did one on obamacare, two on tax policy. In the tax debate i asked him, i said, bernie, look, i admire the fact that youre honest. You actually admit you are a socialist. You are not a member of the Democratic Party. You are a devout socialist. So i said i want to ask you a question. Whats the difference between a democrat and a socialist on tax policy . And he sat there silently for about five seconds, and then he said, i dont know the answer to that. I said, yeah, neither do i. We actually clipped that, put it out, and put it to the music of curb your enthusiasm. [cheering and applause] but having fun matters because when the left is so angry, so bitter, so filled with rage, dont give in to the temptation to be just as angry on the other side. P happy warriors. Be cheerful. That is powerful. It is winsome, and weve got an easy reason to be happy and truthful because what were saying works, because freedom works. If you had to sell the pile of stinking crap theyre trying to youd be angry, too. But the contrast can be night and day between demonstrating believe andhat we that make america great, that make america extraordinary. Demonstrate that in contrast, and thats how you reach out and inspire, not in a joe biden sense of touch, but reach out and inspire fellow young people. Openht, with that, lets it up to questions. [cheering and applause] all right, i just heard someone call out about the beard. I dipped to tell you a quick funny story and then we will do questions. I have a good friend of mine who is studying in jerusalem. He sent me an email, he said he was talking with a rabbi hes studying ways. The rabbi said he really likes the beard. He said the beard has a rabbinical and tall mudic look, which will put fear in the enemies of israel and bring peace to the middle east. [cheering and applause] i tweeted those comments out. I said well, that may be a bit much. All right, go ahead. Hi senator cruz, its a pleasure to meet you. , and im from bingham Binghamton University like you at tournaments well intentioned by misguided policies about Political Correctness have been quashing our freedom of speech. It is incredibly frustrating but it seems to be a microcosm of of whats going on in our national dialogue. Do you have a prescription for how we can improve our discourse at the local and National Level to restore the meaningful and important conversations that have been defining to make our democracy as great as it is . How cruz elaborate on Political Correctness is impacting college debate. Id love to. At the beginning of every round, we asked to write our gender pro nouns on the board. It gets a little worse. In our cases are a little bit edgy, we have to trigger warren before each around. Bite Say Something a little too offensive, we can get equity called and kicked out of the tournament and shunned by league. Also, they had gender minority tournaments where men are banned [applause] cruz one of sen. The saddest things were seeing is our colleges and universities are trying really hard to raise a generation of pansies. Like what is this sense that you have a right not to be offended . You have a right not to hear ideas that are scary. Look, the entire purpose of university is to hear ideas that are scary. I talked about being a happy warrior, not a daisy wearing daffodil priest. Like, it really is not that frightening. Ill tell you, when i went to college, when i went to law school, i was surrounded by leftists. I took classes from marxists. Why you i dont find marxism cute and chic. A guy down the wall from me sophomore year had a poster on the wall. I remember going into his dorm room and i said hey, man that is really cool. Thats so awesome. Have you thought of maybe putting a hitler next to it . Maybe mao, stalin, listen, if youre going to celebrate evil , torturing murderous, really was an amateur, there are much worse guys to pick from. [applause] sen. Cruz but i would deliberately sign up to take classes from marxists. My family has been tortured by communists in cuba. Its personal to me, but you know what . Truth is not afraid of lies. The light is not afraid of darkness. It is good for you to confront ideas that scare you, and this idea, the idea that debaters, someone runs an offensive case, okay, theres a much better solution to that, which is ridicule the living crap out of them. I mean, the marketplace can handle if you have a dumb idea you dont need big brother to come in and say this is a dumb idea. You need people who know how to confront id owe psyiocy. Its part of this political correct idea that we shouldnt hear offensive speech. Theres lots of offensive speech in the world. You take the nazis, you take the klan, theyre imbesols. Theyre racist, bigoted morons. So why are you scared of them . Why would you want to silence them . Why would you want to react like, oh, im terrified if someone hears your idiotic ideas they might believe them. You know, we have an obligation when we see ideas like that to denounce them as ignorant and big gotted, bigoted, but you dont silence them. You dont muzzle them. I would encourage with debate, engage them and demonstrate why theyre wrong. Thats what debate is supposed to be all about, and thats what college is supposed to be all about. Thank you so much. About. Thank you so much. [applause] hi, senator cruz, thank you so much for coming to speak with us today, and thank you for all youve done in the conservative movement. My name is katrina fee and i go to the Catholic University here in d. C. And my question is how do you think we can best advance the Prolife Movement through the federal and State Government that cant be reversed by the next liberal administration . Sen. Cruz thats a great question. You know, this is an issue, if you look at issues in the public arena, theres some issues on which were moving forward, theres some issues on which were moving back. Life is an issue on which i think were making serious , positive advances. This generation of young people is the most prolife generation weve had in 50 years. [applause] sen. Cruz and some of it is the Prolife Movement, i think, very wisely focused on winning peoples hearts and minds. This is where science is beneficial. When you look at an ultrasound, listen, im a father, i have two little girls. There is nothing as powerful and profound as when you see the beating heart of your unborn child. Yes, sir. Sen. Cruz i mean, it touches you. It moves you. One of my favorite moments, so caroline right now is 11, katherine is 8. When heidi was pregnant with katherine, caroline was 2 years old. And she had this blanket that she still has today, this horrible, nasty thing that she called binky that was her most precious thing in the world. I mean, she chewed on binky. That thing, im pretty sure it had its own dna and was a separate life form. [laughter] sen. Cruz she chewed on that thing, and she was talking to katherine, her baby sister still in her mommys tummy, and i remember her going up and saying , katherine want to chew on binky . And heidi and i both that noise, the aww was involuntary. We both like it was from a 2yearold, a precious expression of love. I do think as science has advanced, as weve understood how an unborn child develops with a beating heart, with fingers and toes and feelings and experiences pain, were seeing the prolife argument being won. A wonderful, wonderful movie, havent, i would encourage anyone to see, it is called unplanned. So its the true story of abby johnson. She was the clinic director of the planned parenthood station clinic in in college station, texas. She was a planned parenthood employee for eight years, and she became so utterly horrified by what she saw that she left, and she tells her story in this movie. Ive met abby. One of the things i really like about the movie is its not cartoon cartoonish. So for example, they have a scene in there where prolife protesters are really nasty and horrible. I was glad for that, i didnt want it to be just a good versus evil white hat black hat. You know, abby has said she wanted that movie to be a love letter to the employees at planned parenthood, and its interesting how it characterizes the doctors and nurses who work there not as these like caricatures with fangs but as real human beings who are trying to do good in their own way, ask and one of the Amazing Things about that movie is in the first few weeks the movie ends with , giving a website, a number to call if someone is working in the abortion industry and wants out. They had already had within about a month of the movie coming out, over 1 of the workers at abortion clinics across the country had contacted them to say they wanted to get out. [applause] so i think we keep advancing towards a society that protects life by focusing on science, by moving peoples hearts and minds. By telling stories, real stories, not by demonizing, not by vilifying. I will say this, were saying at the same time that young people are becoming more prolife, were seeing that the Democratic Party is getting more and more radical and extreme. So Hillary Clintons position on abortion is that she supports unlimited abortion on demand up until the moment of birth with taxpayer funding and no parental notification or consent. Lock her up sen. Cruz we sent her to exile. [laughter] sen. Cruz 9 of americans agree with her. That means 91 of americans look at that position and say no, thats not where i am, and if you look at the 20 on the debate stage, just about every one of them embraces that same extreme position. Anyone remember the name Ralph Northam . Boos]owd has anyone noticed that Ralph Northams name has just disappeared from the news . Its almost like it doesnt exist. Oh, no, no, the media couldnt say that. So northam before the scandal about his yearbook page with a k klan suit on it, before that broke, you had an interview he did where he described and advocated for postbirth abortion. [crowd boos] sen. Cruz and you havent watched it, you really ought to watch it because, look, hes a medical doctor. He describes how his approach would be to deliver a child to make that child comfortable, to secure the child, and then discuss with the parents what do you want to do with a child. What do you mean what do you want to do with the child . [laughter] sen. Cruz so in this polarized divided world, the democrats are getting more and more extreme in a proabortion agenda. That makes being reasonable and full of love and defending life a much more attractive position. I think we need to keep winning hearts and keep winning minds. Thank you. [laughter] thank you so much, senator cruz for coming. My name is tony. I go to the university of maryland in college park, and i am thinking about getting kids when im a little bit older, you know, little bit more settled down. One of the things i think about is what to teach my kids, and another aspect, and i wanted to ask this to you, did you or heidi learn things from your kids . Did your values get enhanced from having children . Sen. Cruz thats a great question. Look, absolutely. Having kids is an awesome, wonderful experience. Our girls are totally different. They are katherine is sweet. Shes loving. Shes just like her mom. Caroline, god love her, is just like her dad, which means she is spirited. She can say all sorts of things. Ill give an example, all right 2018 im running for election against beto orourke. Who . A guy named beto orourke. [laughter] sen. Cruz so were doing one of the debates, the first debate, and it ended with each of you Say Something nice about each other, and orourke says, you know, ted seems to be a really good father and husband, and thats a good thing. So that was nice. I appreciated that. I came back and said, look, ill say the same thing. Its really hard in a family, and you seem really dedicated to your kids your kids and i know how hard that is. I went on to say look, im going to credit you for being honest. Like bernie sanders, you openly embrace your views, which are left wing views, which are socialist, and orourke comes back with his best line of the whole campaign. He simply says under his breath, true to form. And it was pretty devastating. Look, that was not complicated what he was saying. It was a two syllable word. The second half of which was whole, and it was pretty effective. So i step off the stage afterwards and i go see caroline, and caroline says, dad youre really not good at saying something nice about someone. [laughter] and im like, okay, all right, you got a point on that. Cruz cruz and im like, okay, all right, you got a point on that sweetheart youre beautiful. And i love you, but youve got a point on that. Look, kids teach you every single day nothing will challenge you more, nothing will frustrate you more, and so its a wonderful, wonderful thing. Thank you. [applause] cruz all right, you guys are awesome. Keep at it. For 40 years, cspan has been ofviding unfiltered coverage congress, the white house, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country so you can make up your own manned. In 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Tonight, on the communicators, we will talk about the future of rod castello and challenges local broadcasters faced with online with National Association of broadcasters president and ceo, gordon smith. We are there still as the answer to what is happening to journalism. We are still doing the reporting, investigating, Holding People accountable. And so i think the future for broadcasting is not just one that we will survive. We will thrive, because the people need what we do, even though they sometimes take for granted that we will be there. We occupy what i would describe as an irresponsible, indispensable niche and communication. Watch the communicators tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan two. At 8 00ht on cspan p. M. Eastern, President Trump addressing the nation after two shootings in el paso, texas and dayton, ohio, 30 were killed and dozens injured. He called on lawmakers to put it side put aside partisanship for the american people. On cspan3 at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, author john farrell talked about Richard Nixons early life and career and how the influence is presidency and what ultimately led to his downfall