library to hear from representative liz cheney, speaking on the state of the republican party and conservative movement. your watching live coverage on c-span. >> there is no place here for cancel culture. [applause] free speech thrives. [applause] president reagan wanted a place where we have debates, so. i'm the director of the reagan institute. it is home of the reagan foundation in washington, d.c., just across from lafayette park near the white house. we had our grand opening a year ago, so we are ready for every single one of you to visit us in washington, d.c. now, a tradition at the library, in honor of men and women who defend our freedom around the world, please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you. you may be seated. roger:: before we get started, there are people i would like to recognize. first, matt jacobs, former federal prosecutor and running for representative of the 26 congressional district, welcome. the city council members from ventura, thank you for being here this evening. [applause] i want to recognize the executive director of the ronald reagan presidential foundation institute, my boss, john highbush. [applause] tonight, it is my honor to welcome to to the latest in our speaker series, a time for choosing. many of you have attended this series, so you know it takes its title from the 1964 nationally-televised speech that launched president reagan's political career. but tonight, i have another speech on my mind delivered by the namesake of this library a dozen years after he delivered the speech. i'm thinking back to the fall of 1975, was a former republican governor announced he was running for president and would challenge the sitting republican president gerald ford for the republican nomination. on that day, in the weeks and months that followed, ronald reagan flouted civil etiquette, took on the party establishment, and challenge the sitting president all the way to the convention floor. why did he do this? because he believed, and i am quoting him now, "we must offer progress instead of stagnation. the truth instead of promises, hope and faith instead of defeatism and despair." if we offer these choices, ronald reagan said on that fall day in 1975, "the people will make those decisions which restore confidence in our way of life and release that energy that is the american spirit." take it to the people, give them , a choice, they will choose the path that restores competence and releases the american spirit, an unusual moment, no doubt, especially coming from a person who championed the 11th commandment, that a republican should not speak ill of a fellow republican . [laughter] when he felt conservative principles were at stake, ronald reagan did not hold his tongue. he did what he believed was best for the party and the country, even if it meant bucking leadership or a sitting president. in so doing, he set a new standard, respect fellow republicans, but not at the expense of his principles. we serve a help our series can live up to that example, providing a forum for vigorous debate over philosophy and policy and mindful of the 11th commandment, a for republicans of many perspective to share their principled views. these days over the past 14 months have hosted many voices hosted to party and principal. it it has included multiple names. tonight, we welcome our latest voice the conversation, a leader who sees clearly that party principle should govern her party. she has done so at considerable political cost and partisan critique, yet through it all, she remained steadfast and clear eyed about what our nation must do to restore, as reagan put it, competence in our way of life and the american spirit, so ladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming someone who speaks with candor, conviction, clarity, and courage. an old friend who is always our friend at the reagan library, congresswoman liz cheney of the great state of wyoming. [cheers and applause] go get 'em. rep. liz cheney: thank you. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. [applause] thank you all very much. thank you so much. it is wonderful to be back at the reagan library. thanks for everything you do. it is a wonderful, wonderful place. i have been here at the defense forum. i have been here twice with my dad, two times when i helped him write books and we did a father/daughter on stage. i want to tell a story. we were just walking in down the hallway, and their wonderful pictures of all of all the speakers, and he said, look, over here. i looked and it was a great picture of my dad on the stage that i had been cut out of. so. [laughter] it is ok. he deserves the spotlight. but it is really special to be here, and always wonderful to be here and be able to honor president reagan, and tonight in particular, i want to talk about freedom, and what freedom means and the cost of our freedom. i have had the opportunity over the course of my career to spend time working in places not characterized by democracy, not characterized by free governments, and i have had the opportunity to spend time with people who had to sacrifice an incredible amount for their vote. i spent time as an election observer in the early 90's in northern kenya. one place we observed elections was a schoolhouse, and we went to the schoolhouse, an international observation team, and the people had lined up to vote, and government troops, soldiers came and chased them away. our team made up of democrats and republicans from the united states said to ourselves, will there be anything to observe, to monitor? the people had been chased away. about an hour later, they started coming back, as we were deciding what to do, walking through the hot sun, understanding soldiers were there to prevent them from voting, but they were so dedicated and committed to it, they came back. i never forgot that example. i also had the opportunity to work in russia, and in 1992, i went to nizhny novgorod, which was corky -- gorky in the soviet union, and there was a young man there, and he wanted his town in the country to be free and decided he was going to privatize the businesses in this town, and we were helping him. i will never forget sitting across the table from him, listening to him talk about freedom and listening him talk about what it meant to lead his people to achieve their freedom. this man's name was boris nips nemstov and he was murdered by thugs at the order of putin because he was a threat to pollutant. i worked -- vladimir putin. i worked in warsaw, and i will never forget a young polish woman working in the embassy, and i remember she said to me, i am so afraid people will forget, so afraid people will forget what it was like to live under soviet domination, and at the time i remember thinking, nobody could forget that. how could you forget that? but people do. they forget the price of freedom. i had the opportunity to talk with a person in the soviet gulag for a number of years, and i remember him telling his story he told many people, which is, when he was in the gulag, he and his fellow prisoners passed messages to each other about ronald reagan and the message of ronald reagan, telling them that we stood with them, those prisoners of conscience fighting for their freedom, and how much it meant to them. a few years ago, i met a young man, my age, so i think he is a young man -- [laughter] -- a man who escaped from cuba and he was 14. he got on a boat by himself in the united states, and i asked him, how did you know -- he was 14 years old, before the internet -- how did you know that you should risk everything to come to america? what gave you the confidence? he said without missing a beat, the speeches of ronald reagan. i asked him how he had heard the speeches of ronald reagan. he said he and his family had a radio and they would listen at night with a blanket over their head so the neighbors could not hear, but they were able to get radio marquis and they heard ronald reagan speaking of freedom. i had an amazing experience here at the library a few years ago, meeting with the defense minister from one of the baltic countries, and we were talking and i told him that story and he looked at me and said i had the same thing happened to me. that is my life. what do you mean? when i was a boy growing up behind the iron curtain, we could watch finnish television at night and we could hear ronald reagan. he said his parents told him ronald reagan was a great man and was a great -- america was a great country. i had the power to see the -- upper team to see the power of faith and freedom in kenya in the 1980's, when pope john paul ii visited, and i listened to him talk about his faith, and learn later obviously when i was working in poland about the differences he had made ther bute one of, the most moving experiences i've had was visiting with pope john paul ii and my father in 2004, and he grabbed my dad's hand and looked into his eyes and said, god bless the united states of america. and i know that god has blessed us, god has blessed america, but our freedom will only survive if we protect it, if we take our duty and obligation seriously. today, we are facing threats to our freedom abroad, around the world, and here at home, and the list of these threats is not insubstantial, from russia to china, to iran and north korea, american adversaries are on the march. we have had good news within the last 48 hours or so that sweden and finland will become members of nato. [applause] and it is an important lesson to vladimir putin that that is the opposite of what he expected. he hoped his his invasion would lead to the weakening of nato. it has led to the expansion of nato. that is an important message. here at home, the biden economic policy has contributed to the worst inflation in 40 years. we are watching the expansion of government regulation that kills jobs and growth. and the situation at our southern border is unsustainable. it is dangerous and reckless. we must get control of our southern border. i am a conservative republican and believe deeply in the policies of limited government, low taxes, strong national defense. the family is the center of our community and our lives. i know at this moment we are confronting a domestic threat we have never faced before. and that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, and he is aided by republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man. some in my party are embracing former president trump. and even after all we have seen, they are enabling his lies. many urgent we do not confront donald trump, that we look away, and that is certainly the easier path. one need only look at the threats facing the witnesses who have come before the january 6 committee to understand the nature and magnitude of that threat, but to argue the threat posed by donald trump can be ignored is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen, everyone must not do that, and we cannot do that. ronald reagan said it is up to us to choose and choose wisely between the heart, but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom, and the temptation to blindly help for the best and ignore our duty, while the enemies of freedom grew stronger day by day. no party, no people, and no nation can defend and no nation can defendant perpetuate a constitutional republic if they accept a leader who has gone to war with the rule of law, with the democratic process, or with the peaceful transition of power , with the constitution itself. as the full picture is coming into view with the january 6 committee, it has become clear that the efforts donald trump oversaw and engaged in were even more chilling and more threatening than we could have imagined. as we have shown, donald trump attempted to overturn the presidential election and attempted to stay in office and prevent the peaceful transfer of power. he summoned the mob to washington. he knew they were armed on january 6. he knew they were angry. and he directed the violent mob to march on the capital in order to delay or -- capitol in order to delay or prevent the counting of votes. he attempted to go with them, and when the violence was underway, he refused to take action until them to leave. instead, he tweeted the vice president mike pence is a coward. he said "mike deserves it," and he did not want to do anything in response to the "hang mike pence" chants. it is undeniable, and painful for republicans to accept, and we have to accept what it means to say those words in those things happen. the reality we face today as republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us, we have two choose, because -- to choose, because republicans cannot be loyal to both donald trump and to the constitution. at this moment -- [applause] and as we think about this choice, and i think about how i come to this choice, the first thing i think about is i come to this choice as a mother, committed to ensuring that my children and their children can continue to live in an america where the peaceful transfer of power is guaranteed. we must ensure that we live in a nation that is governed by law and not by then. [applause] -- men. [applause] and i come to this choice as an american, as a citizen of the greatest nation god has ever created on the face of this earth, and i come to this choice as a person of faith, as someone believes deplete our rights come from god, not the government, and always mindful that we must pray as though everything depends upon god, because it does, and we must work because everything depends on us, and it does. [applause] america is exceptional. we are the exceptional nation. we are a good and great nation. our history teaches us ordinary americans in every generation have done extraordinary, heroic things. our men and women in uniform have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedom, and that task is now ours. president kennedy said, "in the long history of the world, there have only been a few generations granted the role of defending freedom in its maximum hour of danger, and today, that responsibility is ours," and what a magnificent -- and blessing that is. my fellow americans, we stand at the edge of an abyss, and we must pull back. we must poke back. one of my -- pull back. one of my democratic colleagues said to me recently that he looked forward to the day when he and i could disagree again. [laughter] [applause] and, and believe me, i share that sentiment. because when we can disagree again about substance and policy that will mean our politics have righted themselves, that we have made a decision to reject anti-democratic forces, reject toxicity, reject some of the worst kinds of racism, bigotry, and anti-semitism that characterize far too much of our politics today. history has taught us that what begins as words ends -- and we must reject those things. [cheers and applause] so, while i know we will come to a date when we can begin again to disagree again on substance and policy, i think it is important to take this moment to agree what that future should look like. i think it should be a future where our political leaders are serious, where our political leaders are worthy of our support, where they are prepared, where they are substantive, where they abide by their oath of office. [applause] when we go into the voting booth and cast their votes as citizens, we should do so with a commitment to elect people as serious as the challenges we face as a nation. we demand excellent -- that is a good thing to clap for. [applause] demand excellence and so many areas of our lives, that we should demand excellence from our elected officials as well. [applause] when i was first elected to congress, each time we had a vote, i took the opportunity to go on the floor and to find a member i did not know on either side of the aisle, and sit next to that person, talk with them, learn about their life and why they had come to congress. and i would tell you without exception, people commit even people -- people, even people i have had fundamental's agreements with does fundamental disagreements with, they were there because they love their country and pointed to serve. and that is a viable thing for us all to remember. now, i am not saying we should minimize our policy differences. they are big and real. i believe, for example, that the most important obligation of the federal government is to ensure the defense of our nation. [applause] and i believe that america must always maintain military forces that are second to none. i believe -- [applause] i believe we must be clear eyed about the threats we face, and must dedicate the resources necessary to ensure deterrence. our enemies must never think they can prevail if they attack. i served on the armed services committee, and i have differences, as i have said, with most democratic members of that committee, but we also share much in common. among my most competent, honorable, and serious colleagues are a group of women veterans i served with on that committee, like mikey cheryl from new jersey, chrissy houlahan of pennsylvania, elaine luria of virginia. we debate issues. we have big disagreements. we don't come out on the same side most of the time, but we respect each other, and i know that those women, those veterans love this country and are on that committee and end congress because they want to serve the nation and do the right thing, and for 61 years, that tradition of unifying across party lines has meant the armed services committee and the house of representatives, every year it produces the national defense authorization act in a bipartisan fashion, usually in a unanimous fashion, providing resources for the defense of the nation, and that is the model we should follow for the rest of congress and this country. we need to debate and defend our beliefs, but we have to work to build the future where we remembered that despite our differences, we are all americans. [applause] we need to build a future where we acknowledge our political battles and disagreements will be intense, but where we would do our best not to become vitriol partisan attacks. i will say this is someone as guilty as anyone else, i have certainly engaged in my share of ferocious partisan attacks. i have been on the receiving end of ferocious partisan attacks too, but this moment in our history demands more. we cannot let ourselves be torn apart. that is what our enemies hope for, and that is what our enemies are working for. our founders provided that elected officials swear an oath, not to a party or individual, a solemn oath we swear before god to support and defend the constitution of the united states of america. [applause] and the founders established this oath because they knew the injury of faction, the new the survival of this great american experiment, the survival of our republic depends upon public servants of goodwill doing their duty to the constitution, putting loyalty to the nation, and founding ideals above self-interest. this is no small thing. in fact, it is everything. i think often of the inscription above the done place in the white house, part of a prayer from a letter that john adams wrote to dolly, and it said, " may none but honest and wise men rule under this roof," and we must always remember that. our presidents are entrusted with a credible power -- and actually his wife was abigail, not dolly. [laughter] he wrote it to abigail. just clarifying. [laughter] but we must not elect people who are more loyal to themselves or to power than they are to our constitution. [cheers and applause] despite all of the challenges we are facing, there is so much that gives me hope for this great nation. i see hope and i see the future in the eyes of my children. a wise woman once told me when my children were babies, she told me this lesson of motherhood. she said, when your children are young, they hang around her knees. and when they grew up, they hang around your heart. and that is so true. as all mothers know, every time we leave our kids we worry and feel some guilt. for mother's day this year, and i know he will not be happy i told you all this, but just keep it between us. [laughter] for mother's day this year, my son gave me the most wonderful gift, a note on which he had written partly "mom, every time you leave, i know you're going to work for america." it brought me to tears. my older kids said, "mom, he just wants you out of the house." [laughter] anyway. no. but, um, it is an important concept thinking about the young people in this country in the hope they bring. i would tell you over the last 18 months or so since january 6, i have been incredibly moot by the young people -- moved by the incredible young people who have approached me everywhere in wyoming, washington, d.c., and in airports all across the country, and especially the young women. young women who seem instinctively to understand the peril of this moment for our democracy, and young women who know it will be up to them to save it, and i have been incredibly moot by young women -- moved by young women i have met and who have come forward to testify to the january 6 committee. [applause] some of these are young women who worked on the trump campaign , some worked in the trump white house, some who worked in offices on capitol hill, all who knew immediately that would happen that they must never happen again. america had the chance to meet one of these young women yesterday, ms. cassidy hutchinson. [applause] her superiors, men many years older, a number of them hiding behind executive privilege, anonymity, and intimidation, but her bravery and patriotism yesterday were awesome to behold. [applause] little girls all across this great nation are receiving what it really means to love this country, and what it means to really be a patriot, and i want to speak to every young girl watching tonight, the power is yours, and so is the responsibility. in our great nation, one individual can make all the difference, and each individual must try. there are no bystanders in a constitutional republic. and let me say this to the little girls and young women watching tonight, these days, for the most part, men are running the world, and it is really not going that well. [cheers and applause] so, let us all as we leave here tonight, let us resolve that we will resolve the passion and love of country that unites us, that we will resolve to do what is right, and that we will be able to look back on these days and say, in our time of testing, we did our duty and stood for truth. ultimately, that is what our duty as americans require of us, that we love our country more, that we love her so much that we will stand above politics to defend her, and we would do everything in our power to protect our constitution and our freedom, paid for by the blood of so many. we must love our country so much that we will never yield in her defense. [applause] thank you so much. god bless you. god bless america. [applause] thank you. thank you very much. thank you. [cheers and applause] thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated as our special guests leave the building. thank you again for coming. and we hope to see you at our next event. >>