Sometimes dont. And so its fun. Its an amazing story. Youll have a ball. Will you read politico europe . Of course i will if you send me a copy. Its on the internet. Im so sorry. Of course. Thank you, thank you, of course i will. Were honored to have with us several of our british colleagues, pippa, has a question. Theres a disaffection with politicians, in our case with ethis westminster system. You have a rare political commodity that cuts through that, authenticity combined with a dash of humor. What can your colleagues at westminster do to help . Not everyones jokes are as good as yours. Obviously i reject a lot of the characterization youve very kindly made in my contribution. But what i think, and this is the point i was making yesterday, when we were having a conversation about cities, i think one of the problems we have got in britain is people do feel alienated and disaffected and they do feel remote from politicians. They feel politicians cant change anything or do anything. Thats the key thing, i think pip pa. And rather than look pippa. And rather than looking at individual political characters or whatever, i think we need to look at what the electorate gets out of politics and what their role is in setting the agenda. And in britain now, we have an incredibly centralized system. Much more centralized than the United States. Our cities have too little power, too little ability to set spending goals in line with the priorities of their electorates and we need i think weve got a great deal more deaf lution to the local more deevolution to the local level, starting with cities to set their own agendas, to spend more locally of the taxes they raise locally. London currently spends only 7 , london government, local and city, spend only 7 of the taxes london generates. New york spends about 50 . I think that would go, if we had the taxes, i think that that is the answer. Not the entire answer but one of the answers. I do think british politics is in need of a serious galvanizing change like that. I think devolution, giving local communities more say, making people feel actively engaged in what their cities are doing, i think that would be a help. Thats not a complete answer, but it would be a help. Tim shipman of the sunday times has a question. Were all looking forward to the Great American press corps taking on your jokes. Not everybody here probably knows you are born in new york. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger you could run for president of the United States. Id like to ask who your running mates would be. Did everyone hear that question . Tim shipman was referring to the fact that i was born in the United States. I was born in new york. 50 years ago. And obviously very expensive decision it turned out to be. I had no idea. The american tax authorities would come after me 45 years after id left the country having never earned a penny in america. Nonetheless, im delighted to say i have now sorted out my issues with the i. R. S. And i have requited i have coughed up in full and there you go. Im a massive taxpayer, both in the u. K. And in america. All i can say is i hope very much, that people will requite my generosity in america by coming to london in ever growing numbers. As for the whole idea of american politics, well, im wholly committed, as you know, to seeing out my mayorlity so im trying to get elected to ox bridge too. And the running mate . Ill let you , i dont know. Im not going its not going to alas its not going to crop up. Ive got a massive commitment to london at the moment. Time magazine ran a piece saying you would be the favorite, saying friends and foes alike say his ambition will not be stated by the yen election. You are the front runner to succeed David Cameron. Well, you know, the job of the of being mayor of london, it gluts the ap appetite for power. Its the most wonderful job. The last few years have been incredibly exciting, its been a great time to run london, the city has been its going very, very well indeed in many ways. Obviously weve got huge challenges. And i need to spend the next 15, 16 months really focusing on those. One of the functions of success is that property prices go through the roof and weve now got a situation in london where many, many young people, young london people, growing up in our city, cannot afford to live near wherer that parents grew up. And they need help. We need to focus on housing, need to focus on building hundreds of thousands of homes. Im going to just keep going with that in the next 18 months or so, however many ive got left. We have a twitter question, tweet us your questions at politicobreakfast. How have the attacks in paris affected London Security . There theres no read across that we know of, between the events in paris and london. Theres no implications in particular. As you will probably know, there are about 3,000 or 4,000, in the low thousands, of people who are, we think, a potential threat to our security. Thats probably more than there are in new york, you dont have the issues in quite the same, or indeed in washington, dont have the issues in quite the same way. I think if anything, what the paris episode murders remind us is that you just have to be continuously vigilant. One way ive changed in my ways since i became mayor of london but one way in which my opinions have hardened is im no longer as libertarian as i used to be about peoples privacy when it comes to surveillance and monitoring their conversations. I have to tell you, if we can bug these guys, if we can read their emails if we can stop them conspiring to do truly barbaric things, i have no problem with that. Id rather we did that than respect their privacy. Who knows whether that the plot could have been intercepted in paris. Probably not. But i can tell you every week, every month, we think that we are able to stop guys from doing stuff. Could turn out to be doing stuff that could turn out to be utterly catastrophic. How worried are you about a catastrophic event . I think about it, obviously the whole time. Its something you have to simply recognize as a function of the modern world. We live in a time when there is a small group of people who are prone to being sucked into what is a terrifying and nihilistic ideology. They need to be, several things. You need a Strong Security approach. You need to have a strong criminal justice approach. But you also need to reach out to them and youve got to recognize that the problems that they have are not unique somehow to jyhaudi. We need to demystify this group of people. Fundamentally theyre the same sorts of people who could get dragged into drug gadges or many other types of criminality. They lack a sense of purpose in life, dont feel that theyre dont feel that the world holds much for them and they need to be given that sense that they can parties. Participate. The trouble is jihadism does give them that incredible sense that theres a huge power behind them. Its an illusion, a disaster, a crutchings, but thats what it gives them. And we need to find an alternative matrix for them. Something else that gives them the support they need in their lives. Thats obviously what were or working on as well. A twitter question from my politico colleague ben white in new york. How is london doing in reemerging as a Financial Capital to rival new york city . As london as i think i said at the beginning, london is now, i think, got more people working in Financial Services than ever before. So its plainly in the Financial Service industry is in good health. But there is a rebalancing going on. And its the biggest change in the london economy sense the industrial revolution. Weve got more people now in the tech sector by miles than in the Financial Services industry and that is encouraging. Ive always thought we needed to rebalance and to rebalance in favor of manufacturing, in favor of new industries. But that doesnt mean you have to attack Financial Services. Weve got a strong natural banker, to coin a phrase. So stick with it. And last twitter question this is someone we should hire because they asked the question more doug is back there, they asked the question more precisely than we did. Do you have any political aspirations for p. M. . No. My aspirations are to continue as i say, to fulfill my mandate in london and then see what happens and you know, i think that by the time the whole i once said something about the ball coming loose from the back of the scrum or Something Like that. Which is a rugby met for. The ball shows absolutely no signs of coming loose whatever. The ball is being propelled forward by the scrum with David Cameron and you know, with the ball at his feet going for the line. I think its going to be a huge pushover try if you understand the metaphor. This is Rugby Union Football not american football. Much better game, by the way. Anyway, never mind. And i think that that im bound in somewhere at the back. Thats where i am. And it may be that some babe unborn will take over from Prime Minister cameron but it isnt going to be me. But you wouldnt turn it down . As i said, i said what i said about the ball and the scrum. Ive given a pretty fair commentary on the scrum vs. Ball relationship at the moment. In addition to be the mayor candidate, hes an author. You dont have to do this. What did you learn thats incredibly nice of you. What did you learn from Winston Churchill about what people want from their leaders . Well, churchill, the guy made the most incredible series of mistakes. His early career was studied with dast was studded with disasters of one kind or another. But he always came back from them and he always stuck by what he believed. And actually, as you will discover in this book, and if you analyze all the catastrophes, you can see how he was very often onto something. Sometimes he simply got it wrong. And so the big takeout from churchill is that he had the most colossal moral strength. And bravery on a scale that i think is very, very difficult for our generation to messenger. Yesterday, i went to to imagine. Yesterday i went to see the air and space museum and we looked at that flyer built by orville and will burr wright, flew 800 feet, and its incredible to think that only 10 years after that flight, churchill, Winston Churchill was getting up in contraptions of absolutely terrifying primitiveness, made of basically canvas and wood and laundry baskets with, you know engines strapped to them, he was flying the whole time he kept crashing and he kept getting up again and he the only Prime Minister in british history to have been in Armed Conflict on four continents. He probably dispatched probably quite a number of people in those conflicts. And he anyway, to cut a long story short, he was unbelievably brave and that bravery was indispensable to our civilization in may, 1914. Because the pressure on church 1940. Because the pressure on churchill and the whole of the British Government to make an accommodation with evil and do a deal with hitler was overwhelming and the press was in favor of it. The large parts of the government, halifax, chamber rain all say, why should we fight . Remember the First World War with the carnage that had been inflicted on both of our countries was only 22 years distant. And they knew it was going to be bloody. But churchill decided to fight on. And he was only in. If he hadnt decided to fight on, then there would have been no conquest. There would have been no reconquest of europe. Hitler would have had absolute carte blanche, he probably would have been able to take out russia earlier. He would have operation bash rosa barborosa would have succeeded. The americans coming in would have been smaller, there would have been no dday landing, it would have been a disaster that shamed our civilization. He was the guy who held out against it. It was courage, it was bravery. Thats what i take from that. One of my fave result paragraphs in the book, your chapter, the 100 horsepower mental engine, and because youll do it more charmingly than i will, would you read it . If this one. If you have a spare 15 minutes go on youtube and look at the sublime outtakes of churchills only televised Party Political broadcast from 1951. He sit there is, gazing at the camera with utter savagery while they make him repeat his script over and over again. Finally, he breaks off from being tormented by the producers and gives them whatfor by reciting a long section from gibbon about the spread of christianity. Thats actually true. The chunk from gibbon he, wasnt a great christian, churchill. He wasnt a great christian. But i think he believed in god but he was sort of, you know he, once said somebody once said he was a pillar of the church and he said he was more of a flying buttress, was his position. But he, i think i guess the passage he started quoting was the one about how the spirit was left in the cloister and how the roman empire collapsed because of that kind of thing christianity. Thats what gibbon said, anyway. People want a leader who is relateable, they also want a leader with backbone, inner fortitude, seriousness, how do you balance those two . My approach to my approach to politics and life is to try to play my short fly my shots i have. What shots i have i try to play as naturally as i possibly can. Have you ever played cricket . No, sir. Well, cricket who has played cricket . Anybody played cricket . The basic thing about cricket is, when the ball comes down you have a you will tell yourself over and over again, i must not try and whack this ball. What i must do is lift my bat properly, advance my foot properly, put the bat on the ball the bat and the pad together and play it correctly. Thats what you should do. But you will find when the ball comes toward you, bounces there, and seems to hang for a millisecond in front of you, tempting and beautiful, you will try and whack it and thats what i tried to do. And quite often im out. Quite often im out. All right. Wed love to bring you in the conversation, if somebody has a question, please just signal and well breng you a microphone right here. Please just say who you are. Hi, my name is Lindsey Wright with p. W. S. I was curious, one of britains most revered designers, Stella Mccartney, has been helping make the geens guard bearskin hat in faux fur. Its the last item thats still real fur. Is this something you would support . I guess so. Im also quite a traditionalist and i dont know i cant remember this is the bearskins, they must be literally, must be made out of bears, i suppose. Which are an endangered species. If Stella Mccartney can help save a few bears by making false bugbies, then im with her. Im not going to fight that. On the other hand, if it spran spires that theres nothing that bear families like more than having one of their members, you know, paraded around Buckingham Palace on the head of a guardsman in bear culture that thats, you know a privilege, it seems unlikely, but im willing to have further education on that subject. How are your relations with the royals . Do you know, this is the most incredible thing. This is the single question that im asked more than any other, mike. You know, what happened in 1776, folks . I cannot believe how often the only thing people want to know, what did you last say to them . Have you met the queen . What kind of sandwiches do they eat at Buckingham Palace . Can you name the queens corgees . And its unbelievable. What i cant get over is this is a great sovereign republic and you took it a big decision there when you in my view its a shame because its led to a hideous duality of my tax arrangement and would have been much more sensible and economical if we remained part of the same churchillian commonwealth of English Speaking peoples, jointly run by london and wherever it was. That would be the way forward but that clearly hasnt been ok but im very struck, what it shows me what it realy shows me and its been so striking, i cannot believe there are still people in my country who think that it would be sensible to have some sort of constitutional reform that diminished or let alone abolished the royal family. This is obviously a massive selling point for our country and long may it continue to be so. What will charles be like as king . He will be great. Two quick questions. Besides your book whats the best churchill biography out there and second what can you do to make heathrow a better airport . The best joy jenkins on the politics and Matt Hastings on the war theyre the two Martin Gilbert is fan its aics is fantastic, but if you want short reads those are the two id suggest. Heathrow. What we need to do there is absolutely clear. Everywhere around the world, theyre going through the truly longterm, sensible, environmentally friendly option of trying to run an airport as far away as they can from the great urban center. And the trouble with heathrow is that it is right in the middle of the western suburbs of london. If you put in more runway capacity, youll be inflicting huge amounts of aircraft noise on not just west london but large parts of london that dont yet get exposed to it. The answer is to do what they done in france and germany holland and spain, dubai, every big ambitious country in the world is now building multirunway, 24hour, systems that enable them to compete and thats what we should be doing. We should be going for a 24hour service in the east of london at the estuary site where there are very, very few inhabitants to be disturbed. That, by the way, that investment would enable us to solve, will help us greatly to solve the number one issue faced by my city, which is the need to build new homes. When youve got huge potential. You put in the links, huge potential on the sites out toward the estuary where the old docks used to be. The fashion forward mayor yesterday learned a new tv term. Tell us the term you learned yesterday. Hard out. Hard out. Yeah, a hard out. Not to be confused with anything else a hard out. A hard out have we got a hard out coming up . No, were just about there. One more question here, red tie. Part of the great professionalism. One thing i love about it, the professionalism, i have to say you and i are both the ben fishes of fisharies of the attention of professional Makeup Artist this is morning, and both of us had some time, you know, i taosled my hair. It may not be visible in my case. I did that, almost every american show ive done theres been makeup and a great deal of care and attention and people saying, were walking down the corridor, then you go on the bbc, they kick you on, no makeup, we believe in the theres two ways of looking at it. The round, unvarnished truth. Thats us. Thats us. Its round, unvarnished truth. What was it like to go on jon stewart . Hes very funny. Hes very funny. Hes brilliant. Im pretty sad hes not going to be on air. I thought he was can we have him in britain . I thought he was brilliant. Hes available. Red tie. Good morning, mr. Mayor. Welcome to washington. My name is ryan clark and dove tailing off mikes question about daily show, this is going to sound a little silly but i wanted to put to you, sir, the question if you could choose a replacement for jon stewart in the United States of america thats a question were all dealing with, who would you choose . Who would you give us . From our country . Our country, your country . Ive got a guy for you. He is absolutely brilliant. One of our premier exports to america. Were proud of having him youre not going to say peers morgan . I like piers morgan. Red sweater. Otherwise i see a risk he could be reexported. I feel thats a solution. I forgot, you asked a question about policing and stuff, i dont want to be seen to be evading questions. We had a great time, but one thing surprised me was the sheer number of geiger counters that are deployed by the nypd. There are thousands, they have thousands and thousands of radioactivity detectors. I didnt know the threat of a dirty bomb was thought to be so substantial. Were taking that back. Youre going to deploy more geiger counters . Ive asked us to do a risk assessment. The early indications are that we dont think its necessary but it was very, very striking here. Super quick. Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. About a month ago, bobby jindal, louisiana governor, was in london and he made some comments about nogo zones around britain. I was very surprised by those statements and you know, with Great Respect to Governor Jindal and everybody else who has made this kind of comment, i think theyre in need of some sort of gentle education on this point. I would be more than happy personally, to escort Governor Jindal around any area in london that he thinks is a nogo zone. I will show him what a happy Thriving Community it is of people jumbled up in is all ort in all sorts of way. It isnt true. London is very, very mixed up across it, there are no nogo zones nor will there be. I extend a warm invitation to all governors and american politicians and anybody else who wants to come in and inspect for themselves. Ill ask you what your conversation with the fashion editor anna ventura was like. Anna wintour was like. Brief. Did you im told i got more words than most people. I think she said, what did she say . She said i had personality. That was it. She didnt say it to me she said it to bbc. I cant remember what she said to me. It wasnt very they was very very kind and shes obviously a landmark of our culture and doing a fantastic job for britain and new york. Who is chattier, her or the queen . I would i would be exaggerating if i said i had many conversations with the queen. The one conversation i have had, ive had i would say the queen is marginally chattier. Real quick, super quick. Good morning, my question actually is more about the politics, i was taken by what you said earlier about how you changed your libertarian views a bit being mayor. What do you think about the preparation that being a governor or being a mayor brings to brings to being a chief executive versus other experiences experiences like being in parliament . I think its just the sheer weight of effort and the job the variety and pace of the job, probably is very useful. And you know, its a being mayor of a city like london is a huge, huge job. Being mayor of new york is huge. There are differences in the constances we have, new york doesnt do as much in transports as we do in london they do more in education than we do but the work load is prodigious. It makes for a very exciting life. But its also its a heavy education. Theres one sport that people in this room can relate to tennis. Yes. One quick tennis tip. One quick tennis tip. While youre thinking mike talked about the mike talked about the qualities of leadership, i think its safe to say youre viewed as a global leader. Piggybacking on your book, two questions. First, are you which trait do you believe is most lack, which churchillian trait do you believe Global Leaders have most lost. My second is, can you name the queens corgis . Yeah, the wait a minute. I had this the other day. Theyre called like basil no. It was holly anyway, listen. The great thing about the world today is perhaps it doesnt need people quite as churchillian quite of churchillian stature. Yes, we do face terrible terrible challenges and yes we do need to solve appalling problems humanity faces, but we dont at the moment in our countries face the life or death existential challenge that britain and europe faced in 1940. And the reason we dont is partly thanks to churchill himself. If you see what i mean. I think that there werent many people like churchill or any people like churchill even in his own epoch. Let alone ours. And i think theres been no one like him before or sense. On tennis, one tip. If youre playing with andy murray, as i once was in a charity match, with a wooden racquet, i served, i think, and then tim henman, the other guy he whacked it back. To andy murray. It was doubles. Murray was behind me. I turned around to see what andy murray would do with the ball and he hit it so fast with his backhand that it the ball went straight into my open mouth like a sort of medieval banquet or whatever. So my advice is, one tennis tip i give you, dont look around when andy murray is about to do a cross court backhand return. Corgis, vacuum cleaners, hard outs, thank you for the conversation. We thank all of you for catch watching, for twitter questions, thank you to bank of america for making these conversations available. Thank the mayors staff who made this possible. Worked with him over many weeks. Were grateful with them. The amazing politico event staff, all of you out here this morning, and mr. Mayor, thank you for a fantastic conversation. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] quick contact senator rand paul attended the American Spectator gala on saturday. He criticized former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for the benghazi attack. This is about half an hour. I go to a lot of barbecues. I need to alter my jackets. They are getting tight. I was in kentucky, and the guy in front of me had a plate of barbecue. He loading up another plate of barbecue. I said, you are not going to live long eating like that. He said my grandfather lived to be 105 years old. I said, i that your granddad did not get to be 105 by eating like that. He said, note, he lived to be 105 years old by minding his own business. [laughter] when we talk about the leave me alone coalition, we are talking about people who say to the government, leave me alone, mind your own damn business. [applause] if you want a unifying theme, talk about leaving people alone. You can give that speech at sea pac and at berkeley. It is received. People want to be left alone. What unites us isnt big government, it is a small government that wants us to leave it alone. It is less expensive to have a Smaller Government that leaves people alone. It is expensive to pride your way into peoples lives. We had a shutdown of the government a year ago. You may remember. Everybody squawked, everybody in washington said we cannot shut the government down. I go back to kentucky and they say why did you open it back up . [laughter] when i first came to washington i introduced a bill to cut 500 billion at one time. People said no way, thats crazy. You cant do that. I get home and they say what about the 18 trillion debt . People have wildly different expectations at home. Nobody in the city knows anything about america. [applause] i will give you an example. Im on the Foreign Relations committee. I put forward an amendment that said that we should not send taxpayer money to countries that persecute christians. The countries that would have the death penalty, or life imprisonment for blasphemy apostasy, or god for bid interfaith marriage. There are 25 countries that will put you in prison for the rest of your life or execute you. I propose an amendment and asked people at home. Im still trying to find someone at home would not be in favor of this amendment. On the Foreign Relations committee you have two votes. 18 votes said no. We have to give them money. You dont project power from bankruptcy court. [applause] the government shutdown, you may remember. The president was concerned. He was worried that in flyover country where i live they may not notice the government was shut down. Do you remember it . The first thing you need to know is two thirds of your government is on autopilot. It never shuts down. It would take an extraordinary act to slow down. We were talking about one third of government. We were only talking about half of one third because we did but we should do and we supply the money for national defense. We are talking about a sixth of the government. President was like they may not notice. It was in a terrible message to the country if they did not notice. He closed down the overpass from mount rushmore. He had to send people out to put the cones to close the overpass, where you pull on the side of the road. He decided he would wrap the world war ii monument, that has no entrance. It has no exit. The only way you can close it, it has no attendant. The only way you can close it is by wrapping it. Hundreds of workers getting over time, they are unionized. The first work they had done in years, they had to close the world war ii monument. They proceeded to rapid hours and hours, chainlink fences. I tell people who dont understand america, dont understand we need to shut the damn thing down, the image you need to remember, of closing the government down, when the world war ii veterans got off their bus, to the took the wire cutters, and threw it on the lawn of the white house. [applause] it would be a useful exercise if we actually did close down government. After government was closed for a week or two we got a notice. It said you must list your essential and nonessential employees. I said this sounds like a learning experience. Maybe we can figure out what is wrong with government if we actually went from top to bottom and decided what is a sensual, and what is unessential . I said call the irs and see what their numbers are. 95 , unessential. Call the epa. 98 unessential. I thought we are going to learn something here. Until i figured out this is washington. Nothing is as it seems. It turns out, if you are unessential during a government shutdown, you dont have to work. You still get paid. Everybody wanted to be unessential. They are going down the role, at the epa, and they get to these workers. They were perplexed. They found one guide would not been to work in months. They did something extraordinary. They went to his boss and said this guy had not been to work in months. Why is he getting promoted, why is he getting raises . He was the secondhighest paid person of the epa. He created every regulation for the last 20 years. This guy is a big deal. Why isnt yet work . He also works for the cia. Really . The epa and the cia. They did something really extraordinary read the government has never done this and never will again. They asked somebody at the cia. Have you heard of Jonathan Beale . They said who . Here is what they discovered. He does not work for the cia. He had been going on for 11 years. Do you know what his specialty is . Global warming. He has been doing this for 11 years. They finally fired him. Is going to prison, if he is not already. On the way out they could not do it in the proper way. Anybody would have fired him. He would not be eligible for pensions. Even on the way out they could not do the right thing. Im imagining what this guys life mustve been like. Is boss calls him, jonathan, we have not seen you. Are you coming in . I imagine him at his house. I imagine he has a swimming pulled. He makes 150,000 a year. 100,000 people make under that a year. I imagine he is drinking a beer, he is in his lounge. The boss calls him. Here is his response. No, im in istanbul on a secret assignment. [laughter] they get to the point where they are going to fire him. The north they do . He says he will resign. Gina mccarthy says considering the regulations youve written that will be fine. We will let you resign. Seven months later they discovered he is still working there. Nobody noticed for seven months that they paid him. Hes like i changed my mind. They finally put him in jail. Eos you about 1 million that he stole over time. Good luck getting it back. The president says he is not sure where we would cut. They have cut to the bone. They dont know where they would cut. Ive sent the president a couple of letters giving him suggestions. I have not got any answers. I suggested a few things. For example, remember when we were talking about ebola russian mark ebola . The republicans did not spend enough that the nih. It turns out, the budget had been going up for years and years. Do you know how much they spent on ebola . One 40th of the budget. We did discover they spent 1 million trying to determine whether male fruit flies like younger female fruit flies. I think we could have pulled the audience and said 1 million. I think we couldve pulled the audience and saved 1 million. I like beef jerky as much as anyone else but why is the government developing beef jerky . We spent money on origami condoms. Im in the leave you alone coalition. I dont buy whether you buy condoms. Does the government have to by origami condoms . We developed a menu for mars. If you have a 26yearold kid in your basement, it is a great job. 5,000. Develop a menu for mars. It looks just like the moon. It looks like a planet. They went to hawaii. A bunch of college kids. They were there for two weeks. What did they come up with . Pizza. [laughter] when we get to mars, and we are going to have pizza, do you know how it will be made . We spent 125,000 developing a 3d printer for pizza. I guess he will cart it there to make your pizza. Everything in washington is broken. Nothing works here. We cant run the post office. We are not to be trusted with money. Congress is not good with money. We shouldnt he trusted with almost any responsibility. Most of government should be shut down and sent back to the states. [applause] people ask me, what is the worst thing the president has done . That could take me a while. We dont have all night. What is the worst thing . Obamacare, dodd frank, this regulation or that regulation . No, it is the usurpation of power. It is the collapse of the separation of powers. It is the ending of the equilibrium. The equilibrium between congress and the presidency has been shifting, lifting the wrong direction for a long time. It is the collapse of the checks and balances. Montesquieu wrote that when the executive begins to legislate, then a form of tyranny will ensue. There is a great danger. I tell people, it isnt just about how bad this president is. It is how bad the next one might be. Never forget, the only thing good that came out of the kilo decision, or you can take peoples property. You can take it for private use. The worst decision in Supreme Court history. There are a lot of bad ones. I go to the mayor of my town. It spawned these votes. In my town we are not going to do that. My mayors answer was but im a good person. I would never take anyones land. Government is not about whether we are good or bad. Madison said if government were comprised of angels we would not need these rules. Frankly open your newspaper. Turn on your television. It is not comprised of angels, never has and never will be. We have to have rules. The constitution is about restraining government. [applause] when i think of the scandals of this president , which is the worst . I think of old mcdonalds farm. Here a scandal, there is scandal , everywhere a scandal. When i think of the scandals when i think hurts me to worse and angers me the most, it has to be benghazi. At this point, is it ok, you took the gloves off. Can i Say Something about the clintons . I wasnt sure if this was a moderate crowd. Things have turned around for them. I know its not much but 200,000 an hour, someone has to be able to live on that. I did worry about them for a while. They seem to bounced back. They know the right people. With benghazi, there is an important lesson. They said republicans didnt provide enough money. Not true. If you look at the sequence of benghazi from the beginning of that year, it was one thing after another. First there were six special forces guys that were dismissed. Brought home. Why . We didnt want to offend the libyans. We didnt want them to see guns. We wanted to make sure we knew that we trusted them. We have to be very careful about our presence there. The soldiers were told not to wear their boots, military boots. To keep their weapons hidden. Not to show weapons. This one on for months and months. One team was sent home. Another was sent home. We get to march of that year. The Diplomatic Mission keeps saying, we feel vulnerable. We are not sure about sending these people away. Were not sure about relinquishing security. In march and april of that year they asked for a d. C. 3 to ferry them around in case they needed to get from one place to the other. After they rejected the plane, the ambassador in vienna requested and got 100,000 for an electrical charge in station for a chevy volt. He wants to show off how green we are. You dont have to half of the meetings are about how Global Warming is the biggest threat to our existence. It is an existential threat. They are worried about Global Warming. We get these charging stations. We cannot give them a d. C. 3. We have an electrical charging station for the ambassador of vienna. That summer, we spent 100,000 sending three comics to india. I imagine that was a barrel of laughs. Not enough money for security, they say. We spent 5 million in the state department, Hillary Clinton. 5 million, but we did not have enough money for security and benghazi. Hillary Clinton State Department spent 650,000 on ads to get more facebook friends for the state department facebook. All along, letting people go. Security after security. There is a 16 person security detail led by colonel wood. He said we ought to stay. The ambassador thinks we ought to stay. The cables become more frantic. They are sent home saying we think that we are at risk for an allout assault. 9 11 comes. The attack said nothing to do with the anniversary. The Ambassador Says he sends more cables home. The attack happens. The terrible tragedy happens. Killing of the ambassador happens. We have Hillary Clinton and i asked her, did you read the cables . She brushed me off as a, im too important to have read those cables. Maybe you didnt read the cable asking for more glassware in bulgaria. This is a cable saying we have a life and death problem here. You didnt read the cables. I looked at her, and said to her, by your actions, by your dereliction of duty, by not providing security for americans, you have absolutely precluded yourself from ever being considered for higher office. [applause] to get bigger, bolder, to win elections, we have to reach it out. We have a bigger party. The party has to look like america. With tattoos, without long hair, with hearings, you name it. We have to look like america. Black, white, rich, poor. Lincoln wrote, he said i find mercy to bear richer fruit than strict justice. I like the quote. When i think of a quote, i think of how do you find justice russian mark many believe in redemption, in second chances. Many believe justice is a balancing act between punishment and rehabilitation. Many believe violent criminals sometimes do have to be separated and should be separated for a long time, or maybe forever. Many of us believe that if you have been convicted of a nonviolent crime, maybe you deserve a second chance. I think there is room in the concept of justice for discernment. We have had a lot of bad stories out there, a lot of unrest. There is an undercurrent of unease. Something is going on in our country. We often need to remember that every day there are stories going on that are more heartwarming, and dont get reported. The medias all about bad stuff, not good stuff. For christmas this year, Helen Johnson has two daughters, for kids at home. She is the one in charge. The kids have not eaten for two days. I dont know their circumstances. She has not a for two days. She goes to the Grocery Store with a dollar 25 1. 25. She was . 50 short. She decides she is going to steal the eggs. She puts them in her pocket. It wasnt to be her day. The eggs broken her pocket. She is then caught by the police. When you talk about justice, and discernment, the story of william stacy, the local Police Officer who came in, it is an amazing story and should teach us about who we are and how we want to present our message of conservativism. He did not put her in handcuffs. He scolded her. He told her you cannot steal. He bought the eggs for her. Im not saying we dont that we dont have punishment for crime. Im saying that there are times when we say you know what, putting people in jail for selling marijuana may not be the best thing. People may deserve a second chance. I went to ferguson. Not to make a comment about the shooting. Everybody knows it was a messy affair with no real clear cut conclusions that people want to make on this. When i got there, i found an undercurrent of unease. Martin luther king talked about there being two americas. An america where people felt they were treated justly, and where they did not like they were. You are not part of that. Imagine what it is like to get a 100 fine, to have interest out of that, it to be getting people in jail for that. We have got to figure out what justice is. Civil forfeiture has put justice on its head. [applause] a month ago in philadelphia, a teenage boy sold 40 of illegal drugs. The government took the drugs. And evicted the family. These are poor, black, brown families that are disadvantage and dont see justice. In ferguson there were 31,000 arrest warrants for 21,000 people. Mostly just petty stuff. Peoples lives can spin out of control because of this. I think if we show compassion and understand that the government cant run the post office. Be government screws everything up, the government screwed up the justice system. We are going to show compassion for those who have been left behind and incarcerated unfairly. I think youre going to find that our message will resonate and is going to resonate beyond the bounds of where it is. When we show that when the other side has tried to do for poverty for 40 years has not worked. When we show that we have the ability, the compassion, the land to make things better, when we can be judged on whether we care, but on whether our policies work, i think that we have always had the intellectual arguments. I think we win the emotional argument. We become a dominant force. America grows by leaps and bounds. We have a we have all been working for. That is once again a great america. Thank you very much. [applause] coming up on cspan, q a with thomas allen harris. Then, british Prime Minister David Cameron and members of the house of commons. Then, a former hacker new congress, best access on cspan cspan2, cspan radio and cspan. Org. Announcer this week on q a, our guest is thomas allen harris, director of through a lens darkly black photographers and the emergence of a people, examining images of how africanamericans have been portrayed in photographs from the time of slavery through today. Brian lamb thomas allen harris, through a lens darkly is what
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