Transcripts For CSPAN South Carolina Freedom Summit 20150509

And Lindsey Graham and former Texas Governor rick perry. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [applause] lets make sure we win and america wins this primary season. Will you and South Carolina join us in New Hampshire and iowa and make sure that happens. . [applause] thank you. And god bless you. What a great lineup of speakers so far. I can tell you backstage the energy is incredible. The next person i want to introduce as a colleague of mine from washington, someone who probably needs no introduction someone who hosted the iowa Freedom Summit. Someone who is rocksolid in his belief in the constitution of the United States and in his belief or america. Please welcome, my good friend from america, congressman steve king. Rep. King thank you. Thank you all so very much for the South Carolina welcome. [applause] im so pleased when the folks from South Carolina come up to iowa. We have a chance to interchange our activities. When jeff duncan agreed to come up to the Freedom Summit that he also brought his shotgun. We had to go out there and do a little bit of that. [applause] you can say i am for the Second Amendment, but actually, if you practice it at every chance, then nobody wonders. That is where jeff duncan is. He stands on constitutional principles constantly and on every single one of them. [applause] i want to talk to you about the early stage and how this all works, how much it matters. It isnt that i just woke up yesterday morning and decided i would like to be engage in all of this. I have been engaged in this president ial cycle after president ial cycle. We sat down once on a january 9 on one of those years and decided we would do an evident in iowa on march way six, it cold to me it in a down here on labor day. This year, we did the event in iowa on january 24, i went to New Hampshire and spent the weekend, and now i am done here in South Carolina, and here is why. When the nomination season starts, the people who are engaged early in iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, we have more to say on who will be the next president of the United States of america on a per capita basis than anyone else in the country. [applause] if we get right, the country is the beneficiary of the decisions we make. These president ial candidates, i get to know all of them in a personal way if i can. I can tell you, when there looked you have running for president , they do not always know what their platform will look like. They may layout 25 planks and say, i would like to do all of this. Then, they look you in the eye there is one out here you do not like so well and there is one that you insist on and this one here needs to be part of that. By the time they do there campaigning in iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, we held them select the planks for the platform. We shaped those planks, send them, both them down, and in iowa, we hope to do this put one or two candidates on the platform and ship them off to New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, they will look at that, shape it, turn it around, and maybe we will concur. And then they come down here to South Carolina, and you look at them and you say, what kind of job did they do in iowa and New Hampshire . And lets see, we have this other plank, lets make the platform a little different, lets empower this candidate a little bit differently. I like to make a recommendation, New Hampshire can make a recommendation, but South Carolina can put the kiss on the candidate of your choice. [applause] that is why this is important. If the candidate comes out of South Carolina with a resounding victory, then the whole primary that looks like it will take place, will take your recommendation, and what happens . Our values and arrive in the oval office with the president that believes like we do. [applause] all of the things that i have the privilege to do, like writing pieces of legislation, introducing them, trying to get them passed in law pales in comparison to what we can all do to get a new president. Look at how much president obama has affected policy from the oval office. Not very much if you take out the unconstitutional stuff. [laughter] the unconstitutional stuff is a very troubling component of this. The most important thing that the next president of the United States must do is restore this constitution back to the text of its original meaning. [applause] that has to happen. President obama has violated the constitution over and over again. Multiple times with obamacare, with immigration. I have asked the question. He has the fight article one and decided that he could make up his own laws, and also decided that he will ignore the laws that he does not want to enforce, even though he may takes an oath that the laws be executed. Even though. We know that he defies article one to the congress, i have been asking the question for one euro or more, what happens when there is a confrontation between president obama and article three, the courts. Will he defy them . Now he has. They continue to issue the unlawful amnesty work permits out of the dhs even though judge haman ordered them to stop. Time is a little short to cobblers that. [laughter] we need to restore the constitution, and the next president need to do that. I wanted to give you a piece of hope and it works like this. A lot of people agree that jimmy carter was not a great president , but the best thing she did was prepared this country to vote for a conservative principle president , and he gave us Ronald Reagan. [applause] now, if that makes you happy think of this. When i compare jimmy carter to barack obama. [laughter] i did not think i would say this, i actually missed jimmy carter. [laughter] [applause] if jimmy carter gave us Ronald Reagan, think how great our next president will be. [applause] our next president will be a president that will give us a Strong National defense, a president who will identify our enemies, radical islam. [applause] our next president will be a president that will identify how we do see the ideology of radical islam that will have the comfort of knowing that the United States defeated a number of ideologies within half a century in the 20th century japanese imperialism, and italian fascism, german nazis them. We should not think that we cannot do see ideology. Yes, we can do that. [applause] that is we need to do cyber warfare against them, office of and defensive. Shot off shut off their money. Shut down the misinformation. Build a moderate alliance with a strong muslim countries so that they will work with us. We need to improve our global human intelligence. And we need to honor our noble military, wherever they are however they serve our country. [applause] then people expect me to bring up the topic of immigration for some reason. I just dont think i need to say that much. Here is how i describe it. I want to build a wall and offense on the southern border. [applause] we are building fourlane interstate across iowa, through the extensive cornfields. Were putting to fences that, for lanes of highway, we engineer, we pay for the archaeological environmental and were spending 6,000 for every mile of our border and we do not even have offense. Have a sense. We need to restore the respect for the rule of law. [applause] often things will come out in the press saying that steve king is antiimmigrant. You can find no statement that i have ever made that would support the allegation. They are conflating legal and Illegal Immigrants together to try to get you to not think straight. Of course you do and they dont. Here is what i would say. I did this in a debate once when my opponent challenge me. I said, i am for open borders. I did get their attention. I said, well, sure. Every time we let an immigrant in, we will support a leftist. I will make that deal all day long. [applause] we can build an even greater country if we do that. We will ruin our lot of others. We can build an even greater country. Here is what i will ask you to do. This country needs that soul needs its soul restored. My prayer is that god will raise up the leader that he will use to restore the soul of america. God bless you all. [applause] mr. Bossie how about that steve king. [applause] our next speaker is someone who knows how to motivate our conservative values. Kellyanne conway has devoted her life to making conservative leaders into great speakers. She is equipped with leading conservative voices with the knowledge that they need including Michele Bachmann steve king, and new encourage newt gingrich. She led the effort to dismantle the lefts war on women. She defeated the lefts attacks and they fell on deaf ears. In addition to being a wife and mother of four, she has built one of the most respected polling and Public Research firms in america, proving that conservative values like hard work and perseverance really do pay off. She understands her understanding of the free market and the opinions of Everyday Americans give her unique insight into how we can win our country back from the liberals like barack obama. Hillary clinton, and the hollywood elite. She is a person that we should all listen to. Im excited that she is here with us today to deliver some remarks about the state of the conservative movement. Ladies and gentlemen please give a warm welcome to my friend, kellyanne conway. [applause] ms. Conway good morning, South Carolina. [applause] thank you for having me here today. My 10yearold daughter is with me claudia. Im so tired of hearing about the demographic challenges. Today we celebrate the one thing that binds us and that is freedom. This is the Freedom Summit. Today we honor and think about the schoolchildren giving the pledge of allegiance every morning. The inspiring entrepreneur who wants to get out of the daily grind and convert her passion and hobby into a business. We honor the 27yearold who wonders why he does pay the penalty to not buy Government Run Health Care that he does not want and cannot afford. [applause] we think about the freedom that drives the peaceful protesters, the faithful worshipers, the father with a firearm close by to protect his family. And of course, we think about the elderly veterans who sacrificed so much so that we can sit in a place like this and speak freely, who is now facing his most formidable challenge walking into a corrupt and apathetic va hospital that should give him a hero welcome instead of red tape and the runaround. [applause] conservatism freedom is on the defendant defendants diexcent. Look at the results in the you u. K. Conservativessm is on the ascendancy. Why are you here today . You are here to see some conservative candidates. This is not a pony show. This is a Job Interview and you are doing the interviewing. [applause] lets think about what you really want to know. Can i see you as my commanderinchief . What will you do to protect my pocketbook concerns and my personal liberties. The question is not who can win the question is who can lead. [applause] this fiction of electability is always peddled by people who can tell you who want to tell you who can win. If people who say a republican can never win and are tell you which can win, run the other way. You are a thinker and can make up their mind for yourself. This year, we have an incredibly diverse field. We are you have six candidates, more to come, im sure. It is a true free market, pro competition primary where we will have a big contest, a big battle of ideas. If you look at some of the polling, using, who would you rather have a beer with . Who would you rather have as a friend or neighbor . And my alltime favorite which can it would you trust to watch her children for a few hours . With four kids under the age of 10, i would take any of them. Come on, Bernie Sanders, join us for a couple of hours. [laughter] kids, this is Hillary Clinton. [laughter] she may not smile all morning but she does really Creative Things with her emails. [laughter] [applause] freedom is on display here too because we have this huge Diverse Group of candidates. The left brings about diversity diversity, diversity. Today, we have a woman, an africanamerican, a couple of doctors, not one but two latino signs of cuban immigrants and so on and so on. Yes, fresh faces. They do not like old, white, and rich, so the answer to that is hillary. [laughter] [applause] lets talk about hillary for a moment, shall we . [laughter] i am just not afraid of her. I know this is tough work, but it is worthy work. Im not afraid of someone who is the second most compelling person in a twoperson household. [laughter] she has changed her position so many times on issues this week that i kind of miss the old hilary riding around in the van, not saying anything. [laughter] we all change her minds on things, we all evolve, but it seems more like expediency than evolution. What do people ask themselves about a candidate, do i like you and are you like me . She has very little in common with the average person. That matters to people. Relate ability, that connective tissue, that matters to people keep. There is literally a split of opinion according to media polls last week. Already we trust Hillary Clinton. Think to yourself, would you hire someone, when you engage in a relationship or marry someone, would you work with someone who do not trust . We do not think is completely honest and trustworthy . I cant imagine why you do that with the president of the United States. What possibly could follow the but. I dont know if i trust her, but what could possibly follow . Also, i think this is the year that hillary will play the gender card. This is a cycle to force a twoway conversation on abortion. [applause] they want to know from prolifers. Would you believe here that we believe, we agree with the New York Times story two days ago. Frontpage story. Prolifers believe that a woman or a girl facing unplanned an unplanned pregnancy deserves our compassion and support. We believe that every human life is worthy and has human dignity. We will respect that. [applause] ladies and gentlemen prolifers also respect dissenting viewpoints. There are six female republican senators as i say here before you. Three are prolife and three are prochoice. Money for your best favorite tori if you can Favorite Charity if you can name five Democratic Senators who are prolife. There are no prolife female democrats left. To think about, lets ask Hillary Clinton and women on the left, what does it mean that you are prochoice . How about taxpayer funded abortions . How about partialbirth ninemonth abortions . How about that big one, sex selection abortion . It is time to have a twoway conversation on abortion and it really should be this year. The gender card will be played this year. The thought of a female president . I think it is terrific. The question is not do you want a woman to be president but you want that woman to be president. [applause] hillary is not a hypothetical. She is hillary. Every election is about the future and not the past. Every election is about you and not me, the candidate. Every election, with one exception, since 1960 has had voters support the candidate that they told pollsters they saw as more optimistic uplifting, and pleasant. [applause] free speech. Thank you. That begins the view. Be optimistic. Be pleasant. Be a happy warrior. Take 7 seconds, 70 seconds or 70 minutes to talk to people who will listen to you. For those who have not given it much thought, think about why youre here, why you are a conservative, and why you fight for freedom. I would like to say happy mothers day to all the mom grandma ands, and god bless you all. [applause] mr. Bossie thank you, kelly anne. Now i have the distinct pleasure to say a few words and welcome back to the stage my cohost for today. Our next speaker is a great conservative leader, a great friend of mine, and an outstanding member of congress. Jeff duncan is a South Carolina native and a 1988 graduate of clemson university. [applause] i was going to say alabama, but i didnt. Jeff would not have appreciated that. Prior to be elected to the United States house of representatives, he served as a member of the South Carolina house from 20022010, and was president and ceo of j duncan associates, a South Carolina based real estate firm. Elected in 2010, jeff currently sits on three important house committees including natural resources, Homeland Security and foreign affairs. He also serves as a subcommittee chairman of the allimportant western hemisphere subcommittee. He is consistently rated as one of the most conservative numbers of, members of congress for his support of liberty. He is a true conservative and hero to the american taxpayer. Jeff duncan is a staunch supporter of your Second Amendment rights and a leading defender of the unborn. Jeff has been married to his wife melanie, for 26 years and they have three sons. They are members of the First Baptist church in clinton. Ladies and gentlemen please help me in welcoming the cohost of the South Carolina Freedom Summit, and my good friend, jeff duncan. [applause] rep. Duncan it is a great day to be an american. It is a great day to be in South Carolina. There is no doubt about that. Thank you all for being here and greenville in greenville. It is great for me to be here with some a patriotic americans. That is what you are. You are showing your patriotism here today. It is great to share the stage with some a great leaders of the conservative movement. 40 years ago, Ronald Reagan told a group, very similar to this one, that we should raise a better of bold colors that make unmistakably clear where we stand on issues. I think we need boldness more today than ever in my lifetime or ever. We need boldness with clear conservative messaging. I think we win with clear conservative messaging. [applause] we, as conservatives, we must have the courage to lead, but also to have the wisdom to listen. To listen to you, the American People. You work hard for your money. Do you . I do. You work hard for your money. Really, we need to protect it. We, and government. I might be channeling indiana government and former congressman mike pence when i say this, but let me echo something that i told eric cantor when he was the minority leader in october 2010 before the republicans won a history election to take the gavel away from nancy pelosi. [applause] i told the minority leader at that time, i am an unabashed principle Christian Conservative republican and it is in that order. [applause] i reminded house leadership of that back in january, and it is something i do not apologize for. Reagan gave a speech one time called a time for choosing, and i think we are once again at a time like that, a time for choosing. What do i mean . We can continue to govern like we have for years, and that has led to deficit spending borrowing our National Debt, limitations that limit americans ability to dream and innovate. Governing that limits individual choice and family processes for health care and a wide range of daytoday functions. Or, we can choose to do things differently, and i think, do things better. I believe that a govern which governs best is a government which governs least. Americans want government to get out of the way. Good government does not mean doing the big deals or the grand bargains. Nor the passing 1600 page plus bills that neither i or the American People get to read before we have to vote on them. Whether those bills are Nancy Pelosis bills or John Boehners bill, we can do better. If you have to pass a thousand page bill, the process is broken. One of the benefits of being an early primary state like iowa, North Carolina or South Carolina, we get all of the candidates come through our state. Anyone sticking their toe in the president ial waters will come see us. A lot of those faces are here today. They bring fresh ideas, new energy, and we get to play a part in influencing their platforms. That is why i said earlier, show them what you agree with. Remain silent if you dont. They need to hear that because you are helping them at this stage of the game. Began to set their platform and what resonates with us conservative americans. It is about inspiring the people with the vision of what they hope and what we want the nation to be post 2016. What do they need to hear from us . I talk about in terms of jobs, energy, and the Founding Fathers. What does that mean . Jobs. What can i do as a nation, and what can we do as congress to unleash the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that helps americans create jobs. I understand the government creates jobs. Government creates government jobs. Americans create american jobs and that is how we get the economy back on track. [applause] many of you know me. Im very strong on Energy Independence. I think energy is a segway to job creation. Im reminded by jeff landry, who you heard from earlier, he hold up a sign at the president jobs speech saying that drilling equals jobs. Energy is a segue to job creation. [applause] then, the third component of the is Founding Fathers. What does that mean . They are simple principles of free market, individual liberties. Lets unleash the and of great of an entrepreneurial spirit that we have as americans. We understand american exceptionalism. Are for outr Founding Fathers knew that. You can take the acronyms jef and that spells jeff. Otherwise, government must leave us alone so that we can chase the American Dream. When we achieve the government dream, it will not take from the mouse of labor the bread that it has earn. We need to return to the sum of Good Government and that is limited government. Our nation which was conceived in liberty is currently enslaved in the shackles of big government. Governing and leadership is not just about passing bills. A new congressman from alabama said the other day, i do not blame liberals for the condition of his country i believe us, talking about republicans. He is so right. We have a historic United States congress right now and it will be what we do with this republican majority when they are writing this chapter of history. It is no secret that i vote no a lot in congress. I am often asked, what can you vote yes on . I can vote yes on a secure border. [applause] i can vote yes to a balance legit. [applause] guess what,. Go we have to stop borrowing so much money. 3 trillion in debt. I can vote yes to any prolife bill that protects life from the point of conception forward. [applause] i can vote yes to spending cuts to the entitlement programs that are being bankrupt, instead of the cuts that are decimating our military or harming our veterans. If you are a vegan in his room let me pause right now and say thank you for your service to our great nation. May god bless you. [applause] i do not mind and i believe that one of the faults speaking to you today may be the future of the United States. I do not mind if they use their pen and phone. As long as they use the phone to Call Congress and use the pen to sign the bills that we sent to them. At the end of the day, you deserve a government that is efficient and accountable to you, the american taxpayer. 2016 is the next big challenge and like you, i look forward to hearing from these candidates hearing their vision for what america can be post 2016, and i hope it is grounded in what has made america and will make America Great. I want to hear that vision. Here in the 20th century, we need to rebrand the gop. We need the gop to stand for the great opportunity party. Opportunity for all americans is where we find success. [applause] Thomas Jefferson was right when he said that the people are the ultimate guardians of their own liberty. You are the conscience of america. Thank you for being that conscious guardian of liberty and defenders of the United States constitution. Im glad to be here today. Im excited about the crowd i see before me and i want to say may god bless you. May god continue to bless the United States of america. [applause] that concludes my comments. But, i want to remind everyone that tomorrow is mothers day. Many of you know that i love my father last month. My mom diane is with us today and i want to take a moment to say happy mothers day to her and the i love you. I dont know where she is at. There she is right there. I love you, mom. [applause] there is another special person who is here with me today. If you are from the Third District you realize that my why does not attend a lot of the events that do because she is a working mom. We have very active boys involved in band and sports. My son is actually here volunteering today. I would like to take the time to introduce you to the first lady of the third congressional district, my wife melody. [applause] let me tell you, i love this young lady. I will take the opportunity to introduce you to the next speaker. Someone who you have already seen on stage, but he will bring you a conservative message. That isda david bossie. He is a former chief investigator for the committee on government reform and oversight. Ironically, that is the committee that the guy from the Fourth District is from, trey gowdy. Have you ever heard of trade . [applause] he could not be here today he has a family commitment, and i honor that, but he does a great job. During clintons two terms as president , bossie led investigations. Why does that sound familiar . It seems like hillary is involved in some of it now. He authored four books. In 201, Citizens United won a landmark case against the federal elections commission. They struck down to decades of unconstitutional restrictions on free speech. David has produced 24 documentaries since 2004. An Award Winning films. He was born in boston, attended the university of maryland, served 20 years as a volunteer firefighter in Montgomery County , where he resides with his wife and children. Citizens united is a great organization. Please join me in welcoming my good friend and cohost mr. David bossie. [applause] mr. Bossie wow. It was just like i wrote that, jeff. Thank you. Thank you all again very much, ladies and gentlemen. I do want to say a special happy mothers day to my mom who is watching from home in annapolis, maryland. Happy mothers day, mom. I want to say happy mothers day to my wife susan, who is at home with our three girls. First of all griffin and i will be home first thing in the morning. We will be home by lunchtime. Happy mothers day to my wife of our four children. I just want to continue with saying thank you to jeff. Jeff duncan has been a great partner in this event. Working with him and his professional staff has been a real treat. I know a lot of you contacted them directly. They are just awesome. The South Carolina Freedom Summit is the third in our series. First we did New Hampshire, then iowa, and now we are here at the magnificent piece center p eace center, which is absolutely stunning here in greenville. Our lineup of conservative speakers begin today is our best yet. These men and women make me proud to be a conservative. This group today is strong. This group is diverse. This group is here to shape the policy debate in the lead up to the allimportant South Carolina primary early next year. When you compare our group with their counterparts on the left you will see a dramatic difference. Eight is a difference that the main it is a difference that the Mainstream Media doesnt want to talk about, so i will. Today, you will hear from a former fortune 500 ceo who exhibit by success and is a leading woman in america. You will hear from a conservative governor who has been elected three times in a blue state. You will hear from United States senators who are advocating for innovative and bold reforms in washington. You will hear from the first indianamerican governor ever elected in the United States. And you will hear from a worldrenowned africanamerican brain surgeon. [applause] and you are going to hear from a former United Nations ambassador. And you will hear from an icon of American Business and entrepreneurship. These men and women all believe in american exceptionalism and the our best days are yet to come and that we are still that shining city on the hill. Ronald reagan said freedom is never one generation away from extinction. We did not pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for protected, and handed on for them to do the same. That is why we are all here today. As patriotic conservative activists to ensure that the freedom and opportunity that we all grew up with will still be here when our children and grandchildren are grown. Because this is not guaranteed. We must be vigilant and see to it that the American Dream survives for future generations. Now, back in 2008, barack obama told us he was going to fundamentally transform america. Well, 6. 5 years later only 18 more months to go [applause] but, now we all understand what he was talking about. For obama, it all started with shirley bush slowly but surely chipping away at our liberties. I have had enough. I cannot wait for 18 more months. Here today, we must rededicate ourselves to stopping obama and the lefts massive government intrusion into our lives. We must always safeguard and cha cherish these sacred liberties and not take them for granted again. I must tell you, the next round of liberals coming down the pike is worse than barack obama. Just look at Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Ladies and gentlemen, it is no time for another clinton. Hillary clintons ultraleftwing agenda is more dangerous than Barack Obamas she actually will. Once to restrict our she actually wants to restrict our freedom of speech rights with a new constitutional amendment that would essentially overturned the First Amendment. I will tell you, i will not stand for that. [applause] as we all know, the clintons are synonymous with the word scandal. As a person who investigated the clintons in the white house in the 1990s, i can tell you, the latest candle involving her emails, big foreign money donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for favors is extremely dangerous. It almost makes me think i am reading the papers from 1990 six, because that is what they were doing then, when they were in the white house. It is a clearcut conflict of interest. These deals could jeopardize our National Security, and they may already have. There needs to be a criminal investigation into these allegations now. [applause] i actually hope i actually hope there is a grand jury somewhere looking into this right now. Because there needs to be. In the meantime, conservatives must limit the damage as we head into the last 18 months of the Obama Administration. Barack obama has enacted much of his agenda like obamacare and an amnesty through shady legislative maneuvering. The Central Government in washington has inserted itself into the lives of Everyday Americans like never before. It regulates what we do and how we live our lives. It takes more of our money in taxes than any government in history. Instead of doing a few constitutionally mandated things well, like securing our borders our government now does too many things and all of them poorly. Our country is meyer in this darkness. Our Hollywood Coulter is older and profane. A no longer values life or human dignity. It mocks religious scripture and values as objects of critical. It calls traditional values offensive and exalts the obscene. Our federal government has become the nightmare that our Founding Fathers warned us about. We can reverse it. You must get involved in order to save america. As edmund burke once said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. All of us have heard that before and all of us need to wake up and make sure we are not standing idle. We know like Ronald Reagan that our best days are ahead of us. If we were to restore American Values we can fix our problems. Our values are two strong and our fellow citizens are too good to be to veto. As you know, our economy is still struggling. Obamas Economic Policy has failed miserably. Crony capitalists work handinhand with democrats while hardworking americans are on the short end. Is obama and liberal elites in washington think that government dependency, government handouts are the best we can do as a nation. I reject that. I think we know a better way. Conservatives know that if we unleash the power of the free market, americas economy will be great once again. Our National Leaders and polici es must empower people to succeed in life. No Government Program can give someone the dignity that comes with earning a paycheck and supporting their family. Our hope for a better tomorrow must rest in the Free Enterprise system and the knowledge that it is the only way to build lasting austerity. Prosperity. Under obama and his and mr. J, r Foreign Policy has become an outer disgrace. We are far less secure today and far less respected around the world since barack obama took office. [applause] barack obama and Hillary Clinton s record on National Security has been dismal. It has been an utter failure whether it is isis iran, russia benghazi, or our relationship with israel. Freedom. No matter how hard we fight for it, it will be meaningless if we cannot defend that freedom. During the clinton and Obama Administration, america has become weaker. Limping from one International Crisis to another, while our enemies grow bolder. The tyrants of the world today are no different than the tyrants of the past. They are all at heart cowards who fear the power of liberty above all else. America must once again be a fearless champion of that freedom all around the world. The unprecedented lineup of american leaders here today will be the one to formulate these policies, with your guidance that will get america back on the right track at home and abroad. These leaders cannot win this fight alone. Indeed americans all across this great nation to join with them if we are going to save america. There is nothing stopping us from making America Great once again. Lets start with the change of leadership in washington. [applause] we can we can restore our economic, social, and religious liberties. Blet the efforts begin here and now. Liberty is a gift given to us by god. Therefore, the government cannot take it away. We must be ready to fight to keep it. Thank you and god bless america. [applause] as if today has not been terrific enough, i get an awesome responsibility to transition over to really all of the folks who you came here to see today. I thought you came to see me. Wait a minute. [applause] our next speaker grew up in a small wisconsin town of delavan. The son of a pastor. [applause] he had the spirit of service in stilled in him and enstilled and him at an early age. Scott walker passed legislation that involve truth in sentencing, photo id voting, and the elimination of the statue of limitations on Sexual Assault cases. In 2002, scott walker was elected Milwaukee County executive. As a years in eight years as county executive he kept his promise to cut the countys debt. Not only did he cut the debt by 30 and reduce the county were first by workforce by 20 , he even gave back part of his salary back to the taxpayers of wisconsin. Ladies in german, let me introduce the governor of wisconsin, scott walker. [applause] gov. Walker freedom. Freedom andendowed by our constitution, but defended each and every day by the men and women who proudly wear the uniform of these United States. Lets begin by asking all of those who have served, our veterans, all of those who are serving, in active duty, the army and reserve, and since it was military spouses day yesterday, lets invite their spouses, all of them to stand up and give them an applause. [applause] thank you to each and every one of you. We will talk about freedom today. I know you love your country. That is what you serve. We love this country that we call america. Take you for making a possible for us to have events like this. You know, i have to begin by saying thanks. It is great to be back in South Carolina. It is great to be back in greenville. The last time i was here, we not only talk to grassroots activists, i even went over to the harleydavidson factory and picked up a teacher. It is hot enough today, if i were headed up to israel, i would get on my bike. I promise you, one day i will get on my bike and ride around South Carolina. It would be a lot of fun. [applause] looking at this crowd, thank you. I know many of you helped us a few years ago. Back up in wisconsin, when we face the one and only recall. So may people here and across the country, you helped us out. Some of you even literally came and knocked on some doors for us. We appreciate how many of you told us you prayed for us. That meant the world to us. Dont stop praying. We appreciate it. [applause] gov. Walker its interesting. For us, thats how things started in 2009. We were sitting down and talking about and praying about getting into the race for governor. We know will be tough. In wisconsin, theyre more democrats than republicans in our state. The last time a republican carried the state for president was 1984. Thats when i was in high school, and i had a much bigger head of hair. [laughter] gov. Walker we knew we had faced tough battles before. Dave mentioned even before running for governor, back in 2002 we were raising our sons in a place called Milwaukee County. We live in a town called while the tosa where the family home is out. There was a big scandal, the guy who would been the county executive and got in the county into trouble, ironically there was attempts to recall him. He was about to be recalled and he resigned about a week after i announced that if you didnt get out of the way, i was going to run for county executive. I never thought about running for county executive before, a republican had never ever been in that spot before. But we knew for all of the sons and daughters like ours, we needed a better county. A few years later, after we had done eight consecutive years without raising the property tax from the previous year, after we reduce the size of the workforce and the debt by 25 plus percent. After we have gotten our economic and financial things in order, and we have done good things like our park system won a gold medal. Youve we could turn a place like Milwaukee County around, we knew we could take on the kind of battles that would be needed at the state level. People asked why you would take on that challenge knowing how difficult it would be to win in wisconsin . Two reasons, matt and alex. Those were boys. As parents was that it was unacceptable to think our sons would growth in a state that wasnt as great as the state we grew up in. So we got in that election, we won the battle. And then shortly thereafter we took office in january, 2011, we did some pretty big things. At one point we had more than 100,000 protesters in and around the capital. We had not just threats, we had Death Threats against me and my family my kids were target on facebook, my parents even got grease the grief at our home and what would tosa. The attempt there was to intimidate us. Thats what they do. They try and intimidate at the state and local level. It reminded us to refocus on why we got elected in the first place, to think more about the next generation. The great thing was it worked. It works. [applause] gov. Walker today, the state i am proud to lead had an unemployment state had 9. 2 and implement rate of 5. 2 . Last month it was 4. 2 unemployment. [applause] a state that when we took office, was ranking of the best and worst states to do business in. In 2010, wisconsin was 41st in the country. Just a day ago, the ranking came out. Wisconsin is the 12th estate in the country best state in the country for doing new jobs. [applause] gov. Walker we inherited a 3. 6 billion budget deficit. Every year i have been in office, we have a surplus of the into the budget. We are debating for the next two years of my state. We will end with a structural surplus of 499 million. Nearly . 5 billion on the structural side of things. [applause] gov. Walker our pension is fully funded. The only one in the country. Our bond rating is strong. Our Rainy Day Fund is bigger than we took office. But its more than economic and fiscal issues. I am proud to say we took out another big challenges well. We took on regulations and litigation. We made it sane again so we enforce common sense, not just bureaucratic red tape. We took on things like Defunding Planned Parenthood and passed prolife legislation. [applause] gov. Walker we believe in the sanctity of life. On top of that, we signed concealed carry and Castle Doctrine so people can protect themselves, their family, and their property. [applause] gov. Walker something you will can appreciate here, who would think, in the midwest, we would be the 25th state in the country to have the right to work, the freedom to work where you want regardless of the labor union. [applause] gov. Walker im proud to say earlier this year, the United States of in Court Finally signed off and gives us the ability to enforce the law i signed a few years ago shortly after taking office, that says we want to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat. In wisconsin, you need a photo id to vote in the state of wisconsin. [applause] gov. Walker the reason i tell you that here today is not to brag not much. [laughter] gov. Walker the rather to tell you if all those common sense conservative reforms can happen in a state that hasnt voted for republican for president since 1984, i have to tell you, in america, if we have leadership that is willing to go big and go bold in washington we can make America Great again. [applause] gov. Walker i believe that is why you are here. I know i love this country. Do you . And we love and not just for ourselves, we love it for our children and grandchildren and future generations. Let me tell you three ways why i think its important for us to try out a new half for leadership in this country. First, when it comes to growth we need to be talking about growth, not just austerity. Im all about balance budgets. We had to deal with the debt and deficits in this country, but we have to do it first by talking about growth. There is a stark contrast out there. The president and people like Hillary Clinton, when they talk about growth, they are talking about growing the economy in washington. Think about it. Last year, reports showed six of the top 10 wealthiest counties in america, you know where they are at . In around washington dc. The majority of us create jobs out in the cities and villages across this country that he will create jobs not for government. Its about time to get the government out of the way and start creating more of those jobs. [applause] gov. Walker is about empowering people and employers to do that. That means getting government out of the way, lower taxes fewer regulations, repealing things like obamacare in putting patients back in charge again. [laughter] [applause] gov. Walker using the abundance of what god is given us for energy instead of relying on places around the world that hate us. All of those things are about growing the economy. I get a kick out of this. In my state we cut the tax burden on the hardworking people of our state by some 2 billion over the past couple of years. Property taxes today are lower than they were four years ago. What governor can say that across america . [applause] gov. Walker but sometimes i get people that say well why are you so obsessed with cutting taxes . I say it is simple. My wife is here with me tonight today i should say. Some 22 years ago, in 1993, we were married. We just celebrated on february 6, our wedding anniversary. Either member not long after we were first married, i went out and committed a really bad act. I went to the Kohls Department store near our house i bought some thing for the price was marked out. [laughter] gov. Walker big mistake. She said you can never go back to kohls until you learn how to shop there. Now i know, if im going to buy a shirt that was 29 and nine cents, i go to the wreck that says now 19. 99. I get the insert with a scratch off the gives me another 15 or 20 . Or maybe i really get the flyer thats 50 or 20 , or if were really lucky, 30 . And we go to the Cash Register and she will reach into her purse and pull out some of that kohls cash. The next the you know, when we ring it up, they are paying us to buy the shirt. [applause] gov. Walker not quite, but it feels like it. So how does a Great American company like coals kohls make money . They lower the price and broaden the value and more people can buy their products. Thats all you feel about your money. The taxpayers money. We could charge high rates of him and a few of you might be able to afford it. Or we could lower the rates and broaden the base and more people are participating in the economy. [applause] gov. Walker i call that the kohls curve. I was starting to an advisor for resident reagan. For president reagan. We have to talk about growth in this country. Secondly we need to talk more about reform. We need leadership when it comes to reform. This president and people like Hillary Clinton tend to measure success in government by how my people are dependent on the government. Food stamps, unemployment, medicaid, you name it. We measure success by just the opposite. By how many people are no longer dependent on the government. [applause] gov. Walker we understand in america that true freedom and prosperity do not come from the mighty hand of the government. They come from empowering people to live their own lives, control their own destinies through the dignity born of work. [applause] gov. Walker dave in the introduction talked about the small town i was raised in. I first job was washing dishes. I moved up to the high school and started flipping hamburgers at mcdonalds. Paul ryan grew up about 20 miles down the road for me, he was living burgers in janesville why was flipping the magellan. Flipping them in delevan. His manager told them he didnt have the interpersonal skills to work the front Cash Register. [applause] gov. Walker i wouldnt hit about that. My dad was a preacher at the First Baptist church, my mom was a parttime secretary who did some books in town for one of the great clothing stores. She raise my brother and i. My grandparents, my moms parents were farmers who raise my mother at a farm that didnt have indoor plumbing until she went to junior high school. My dads dad was a machinist for 42 years just over the state line in rockford. My brother and i look back in our lives as young kids, we realize that from our family, we didnt inherit fame or fortune. What we inherited was the belief that if you work hard and you play by the rules, you can do and be anything you want. That is the American Dream. [applause] gov. Walker that is the American Dream. We need to fight for that. Sadly, there are many of our fellow americans who think that is out of reach. We need to get government out of the way up with the power back in the hands of the American People. [applause] gov. Walker finally, i just want to spend a couple moments talking about the third thing i think is important, and that is safety. Let me say safety. Is that fire and police . Thats important that the local level. Safety to me is what some may call National Security. I call it safety. In a few hours, were going to head off to israel to meet with folks, including the Prime Minister and others to talk about the risk that they have. When i look it not just israel, but that region in the world i call it safety because when i watch a jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage, when i see christians from egypt and elsewhere around the world shot were beheaded just because of their faith, that is something i feel right here. You feel in your heart and your soul. National security some thing you read about in the newspaper. Safety is something you feel. You start to worry its not just about some whirls around the world, and something that could happen anywhere. France, belgium, canada, texas. It can happen anywhere in the world. Its something that even as a governor, i dont deal with it they end and day out, its been increasingly become one of the most important things for me to focus in on because i think about safety i think about my own children and yours as well. I cant tell you how frustrated i am with this president and the people who advised him because you have a president who drew a line in the sand and allowed people to cross it. You have a president who just in the past year has called isis the jv squad, who calls yemen a Success Story, who called iran the place we could do business with. Think about that. On monday, i just met with the family of a marine who has been held in iran since august of 2011. I met with his sister, i met with his mother and sister. He has been held in an iranian prison since august of 2011. It makes me think back to the fact that as a kid, i can remember time ribbons around the tree in front of her house when americans were held hostage for 444 days. I knew one of those he was the youngest held for 444 days. Iran has not changed much other than the rain the names are different. We need a president who will back away from that deal in iran and set the record straight. [applause] gov. Walker we need [applause] gov. Walker we need a commanderinchief who will once and for all call it what it is, and that is radical islamic terrorism is a threat to us all. [applause] gov. Walker we need a president who will affirm that israel is our ally and start acting like it. [applause] gov. Walker and we need a leader in america who will have the courage to look the American People in the eye and tell them what might not be easy to say. And that is this will not take a day, it might not take a week it might not take a month or even a year. But i have to tell you, its not a matter of if another attempt is made on american soil, it is when another attempt is made on american soil. And on behalf of your children in mind, i want a leader who is will to take the fight to them before they take the fight to us. [applause] gov. Walker so let me just end by telling you a quick story for a minute or two. And that is i love this country. I an optimist i am an optimist. As challengesas challenging as these times are im an optimist and i believe in the American People. I believe in your love in mind for this great country. I believe with the right leadership, we can make it better when it comes to our nations capital. Let me tell you why. The examples we see across the country in the states is a great testimony to how things have gotten better with commonsense conservative leadership over the last two years and are statehouses. Politically one last thing about why i believe america will once again be great. Thats because the part of our history. It is to er. It is who we are. [applause] gov. Walker as a kid growing up maybe i was a little geeky. I love history so much. I thought of our founders like superheroes. Bigger than life. And so years ago, when i was young, we never had a chance to go to philadelphia. A few years back when we got the chance to go to philadelphia for the first time, i was pumped up. I got up early in the morning, i went out with the National Park service and went over and saw the liberty bell. And then we went to independence hall. And i thought here it is, the place where we did that incredible work. I was ready to be blown away. Early on that morning in philadelphia, we get out and going to independence hall. It is smaller than the stage and i got out as the sun was rising and i look to the desk, and i looked at the chairs, and it dawned on me. These were ordinary people. These were ordinary people who did something quite extreme right. They didnt just risk their political careers. These were people who didnt just risk their business ventures. These were patriots who literally risked their lives their lives for the freedoms we hold dear today. [applause] gov. Walker what makes me love this country so much as i think in moments like that it reminds me what makes America Great. What makes us exceptional. What makes this the greatest country in the history of the world is that all throughout our nations history, in times of crisis, be it economic or physical, be it military were spiritual, what has made america amazing has been all throughout those times, there have been men and women of courage, who have been willing to think more about the future of their children and their grandchildren than they thought about their own futures. Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you once and for all, this is one of those times. This is one of those moments in American History. This is the time where we can look back and tell future generations we were there. We heeded the call, we did what was required to make America Great again. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of that movement. God bless you. Lets go forward making America Great again. [applause] congressman duncan this is an awesome event. When you run for Public Office the most important thing you can do is get out in the community and listen. Im not talking about conducting an event at chipotle with sunglasses on, pretending to listen to someone. What i mean is really stunning time in the community, listening to the peoples concerns. I strongly believe of washington politicians would do more of that, spend time listening, the nation would be better off area when Rick Santorum river president in 2012, he was everywhere. He met with people in their homes, he gave all the kind of attention you would expect from someone running for president. Ira members seeing someone post pictures around halloween from a college or public and phone Bank Halloween party and robert thinking that college kid has a realistic looking santorum mask on, before releasing that was Rick Santorum. Another thing i appreciate about rick is he is a unabashed prolife conservative. Let me is reduce someone who came in second last time, he won 11 states. He looks forward to giving you a great message. Please endowment, Rick Santorum. Please welcome, Rick Santorum. Because im happy [applause] sen. Santorum thank you, jeff. I thank you for that great introduction. Usually when im in South Carolina, i start out every speech i gave by introducing a couple of people. My two boys, john and daniel. Im proud of all my children, but in South Carolina, and particularly proud of these two guys. John and daniel are sophomores and juniors at the citadel in charleston. [applause] sen. Santorum you can tell from the last campaign, South Carolina had a big effect on us. We love that institution. They are not here today, they are with my older daughter elizabeth. And they are in columbia. You might notice the garnet palmetto time. Tie. I know that the risky thing in a jeff duncan crowd. My niece is graduating from usc today, they are at her graduation. I will say for the benefit of those in orange and white, my sun is bright enough my son is bright enough to have started dating a girl from clemson right now. [applause] sen. Santorum i very proud of my boys. One of them is going to be going this summer to field training, contract with the air force. I very proud of him. And his decision to serve in our military. [applause] sen. Santorum thank you. People asked me all the time why are you considering running for president . One of the first reasons i can think of, and i believe is that i think it is time we have a president that honors and supports the American Military. [applause] sen. Santorum i also think it is time we have a president who doesnt appease and play word games in defining our enemy, but is very clear, forthright, and honest with the American Public about the multiple threats to confront this country from china, russia, and yes radical islam is confronting this country. [applause] sen. Santorum i would just be happy if the president would be able to tell the difference between our friends at our enemies. And our enemies. Let me give the current president a little primer. Iran enemy. Israel friend. [applause] sen. Santorum it is important for anyone who is thinking about running for president to have a vision. To articulate that vision for the American Public is a how we are to keep america free and safe. That is important. It is also important to have policies that back it up, so we can communicate at articulate a vision that is backed up by real strength. Over the last several years, i have been very clear. In fact, i have been clear for the last 10 or 12 years about the threat of radical islam. I have been one who actually lectured a previous president on saying this isnt a war on terror but a war against radical islam the. Terror is a tactic, islam is an ideology. We need to be honest with the American Public about who the nature of our enemy really is. And what i believe we need to do is to confront the great threats in the middle east that confront us today. First, isis. We have to have a plan. With president has is a Public Relations stunt. [applause] sen. Santorum he is sending airplanes to bomb, he has a few advisors in place. But the handful of flights every day most comeback having not dropped their ordinance. They are flying over there. But they are not doing anything there. He just wants to be able to report to you that he is doing something. Heres what need to do. We need to ramp up. If these folks want to bring back a seventh century version of islam, then my recommendation is less load our bombers up and bomb them back to the seventh century. [applause] sen. Santorum we have to be very clear that we actually do need to arm the kurds so they have the ability to fight back and take back their territory. [applause] sen. Santorum we have to support the jordanians. And we need to get iran, who is now doing the proxy fighting for a rock, we need to get iran and their special forces out of iraq and put forces in there including some American Forces who can work with the sunnis in iraq to drive isis out of iraq immediately. [applause] sen. Santorum thats a plan. That is a plan, that division. That something that can be executed and measured by. I have put that plan out there and a few weeks later i find myself in a magazine. Not necessarily a magazine for anyone in public life love to see yourself in a magazine. Not necessarily this one. It was isis magazine. Yeah. I was under the heading in the words of our enemy, with my picture. I would add that president obamas picture was not under the in the words of our enemy. [applause] sen. Santorum what were my words . Identified who they were and i told the world how to defeat them. That makes me an enemy. That also makes you a leader that they are worried about. [applause] sen. Santorum second major threat i would argue, and i have argued for 10 years, 12 years the bigger threat come even during the iraq war i argued this, the bigger threat is a nuclear iran. I asked a former head of the cia what kept him up at night just a few weeks ago. He said a nuclear iran that could launch an electra magnetic pulse bomb if they get a nuclear weapon. [applause] sen. Santorum back in 2004, losing, i authored a bill called the iran support act. It was a bill that put sanctions on the Iranian Nuclear program and when i authored it, i couldnt get a single cosponsor. No one was worried about iran. Eventually, two years later, we fought, got it on the floor of the senate, it was defeated on the floor. And who stood up and voted against me . Barack obama and Hillary Clinton. Six months later, we pass that bill unanimously. It is now the sanctions you hear about that are crushing iran that brought them to the table . I was the author of a lot of the sanctions. [applause] sen. Santorum i know a lot of you because i have been out of public life for several years. Im frustrated because i hear people get up they will be up on the stage, a really great few people that have great rhetoric. But then they go to washington dc, we collected some of them. Not very many in South Carolina, but some. Who say all the right things at campaign time, and then go to washington dc and do something completely different. [applause] sen. Santorum so how do you know who to trust . Look at the record. Look at what they have been saying not just for this election or this campaign, for the speech sometimes. And look at what the record has been, not just the last year with the last 10, 15, 20 years. Commanderinchief is not an entrylevel position. [laughter] sen. Santorum we need someone who has experience that you can trust, and how you trust them . By looking at the record. Looking at someone who has stood up and fought, who told a previous president that iran will never keep anything they say theyre going to do. [applause] sen. Santorum so we need to understand that experience and a track record are vitally important. I would add one other National Security issue. It doesnt get talked about a lot but it is. As we are seeing. Isis and the other jihadi is talking about it coming here to america. That is our Border Security. Most of the folks coming across the border are not mexicans. They are other than mexicans. They are not just coming from el salvador. They are coming from all over the world. And the way we treat them is different. We let them come across the border and we dont support them right away. We have an entire system that is wide open for threats of this country to come across our southern border. And allow them to stay in this country. We need someone who has a track record, who has a history of being tough on Border Security. Because how many folks have you elected that said they were going to secure the border, and look where we are today . [applause] sen. Santorum again, 10 years ago, i offered a comprehensive Border Security issue when it wasnt even a big issue. Because i was concerned about the National Security threat. There is also another threat of our border. Another threat on the issue of immigration. And that is the threat to hardworking men and women in this country. Who have seen over the last 20 years, both legal and illegal 35 Million People come into this country. 35 Million People over the last 20 years the largest amount in the history of our country. Who have come into america, both legal and illegal, and almost all of whom are unskilled. Do you want to know why wages have flat lined . Supply and demand, ladies and gentlemen. Supply and demand. [applause] sen. Santorum you want to know why the Median Income has come down . Because you have 74 of the population of america age 18 years old 65 years old dont have college degrees. We brought in roughly 35 million unskilled worker to say we are to compete against you. And guess what happened . Since the year 2000, there been 6 million net new jobs created in america. Do you know what percentage of those jobs were held by people who were not born in america . All of them. There are 17 million more people who are in the workforce, born in america, who dont have jobs all the new jobs have gone to people who are willing to come in and work for them it. If we are going to go out there and say we are the party of opportunity, we need not just to be the party of growth. We need to be the party of growth. Youre going to be hearing from you in the next few weeks, a dynamic progrowth plan that is going to get this economy going again, reduced rates, simplify the code, get rid of the irs make a system that is going to create real wealth and opportunity. [applause] sen. Santorum so, we need a progrowth message. We need to get this economy going. That is the best way to get the most people employed at all levels and sectors of the economy. Absolutely. And i wrote this book last year called bluecollar conservatives. I wrote it because i am concerned that what we are seeing is the hollowing out of the middle of america. We dont like to talk about it, we are uneasy about talking about those things. The reality is that Middle America is struggling and suffering the most. And we had better be the party that has the answer. Because the other side isnt. Theyre going to pay them off. Theyre going to say we will give you food stamps and a little housing but they are never going to given the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. That is what we have to do. We have to be a movement that is about growing this economy, and making sure that we have an economy that creates jobs for that 74 of americans who dont have college degrees, so they have the ability to rise and make something of themselves. That is why we need to be a proworker party. [applause] sen. Santorum it starts with immigration. Three days ago i published something in print partners, a comprehensive it sounds like a bad word. Lets say a complete proposal on how we are going to deal with Legal Immigration. We bring in 1,050,000 Illegal Immigrants each year, almost all of whom are unskilled. We need to say we need a Legal Immigration system that supports the American Worker. I call for a toy 5 reduction in unskilled labor coming into this country, competing against American Workers. A 25 reduction. You want to get detailed why . Because then you can hold that candidate accountable. Account ability matters. Putting stuff in rhetoric saying were going to do these great things, but then holding them accountable requires them to be specific. So we put a specific plan together on that. We put plans together on creating opportunities for manufacturing. If you really want to make the ladder of opportunity reach down to those who are lower skilled workers in the Economy Today then you have to take the slogan that made america and turn it into a reality of made in america. [applause] sen. Santorum and we can do it. Look at South Carolina. Look at what you have done here tracking all of these Huge Assembly plants entire plants and always other manufacturers. Its created low rates of unemployment, opportunity for those who are lower skilled workers to rise in society. I grew up in a meal town a mill town. Thats what supports communities and churches, to have opportunities for everyone to get that good paying job. If we want to be not just the Majority Party to win states like pennsylvania and ohio and michigan, wisconsin and others, then we have to be the party as i say in my book that is for a rising tide lifting all boats. A progrowth agenda. It also understanding this. There are millions and millions of americans who have holes in their votes. We need to be the party that says we are not just going to let you sit there and try and scoop out your boat as the tide rises. We are going to be there to help you, so that you can sail to the great heights of the American Dream. [applause] sen. Santorum ladies and gentlemen, and economic vision, a vision for safety and security for our country, and finally, we all know that our fundamental liberties are under assault in America Today. We can have a Strong Economy, we can feel safe, but if we arent free, if we dont have liberty what is it all worth . [applause] sen. Santorum in America Today, for the first time in the history of our country, the most fundamental foundational freedom that we have, the freedom of belief i see all these reporters getting all rigged up about freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and how important that is. It is important. Is it worth dying for . Yeah, i think it is worth dying for. [applause] sen. Santorum but what good is freedom of speech if you cant speak what you believe . [applause] sen. Santorum for the first time in the history of our country, our government is trying to tell us what we can believe. Our government is trying to bully us, not to tolerance, not to going along, but to conformity. You heard arguments just last week in the Supreme Courts on the issue of marriage. How the lawyer for the government couldnt guarantee that if the justices found a new definition of marriage, that those organizations who were faithbased, churches and faithbased organizations wouldnt lose their taxexempt status for disagreeing with the government. But they wouldnt be singled out and isolated as bigots in society. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a key moment in American History. This is a key moment. And we need it again someone who is a vision for what america should look like. Its easy. Its our founders vision. Madison wrote the First Amendment was the perfect remedy. What is the constitution for . It is to set up a government yes. But what is the government and constitution for . If so we can all get along together. Thats what its about. Its as simple as that. Setting up a framework so we can all get along together and pursue our dreams. And make society better. Thats what its about. Madison wrote that the First Amendment was the perfect remedy to that. What is the remedy . That everyone is allowed in, everyone is allowed to believe what they want to believe, say what they want to say. There is no right not to be offended. [laughter] sen. Santorum i know for sure there is no right not to be offended. [laughter] sen. Santorum ladies and gentlemen, that is what makes America Great. Everybody gets their say. And you know what, if you lose, at least you had a fair shot. What theyre doing now is saying no, we are going to decide these things for you. We are not going to let the people make these decisions anymore. We are going to let these unelected judges coming here and tell us how to run our country and what to believe and what not to believe. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a moment that we are approaching. It is time for each and everyone of us, and i know you are here and you are the activists. People say you are preaching to the choir. Sometimes the choir has to go out and sing solos. [applause] sen. Santorum you have an opportunity in this election you have an opportunity in this election to select somebody who has got a vision, who has got policies, and who has a record that backs it up. South carolina, you pay you play a key role. I will close with one factoid. Since the convention era when they selected nominees by convention not by primaries and caucuses prior to the 1960s. Since then, the Republican Party has nominated people who have checked one of three boxes. If you havent checked one of these three boxes, you have not been nominated by the Republican Party in the post convention era. Number one, you were a vice president. We have nominated former vice president. Number two. You were the sun of a former president. Son of a former president. [laughter] sen. Santorum number three, you came in second the last time and ran again. [applause] sen. Santorum i know South Carolina loves tradition. [laughter] sen. Santorum i just encourage you to keep that tradition rolling. God bless you. Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth [applause] mr. Bossie how about Rick Santorum . Our next big or as man who you all know very well. He has never been shy about sticking up for his conservative principles and challenging the liberals in washington dc when their policies run afoul of the constitution. Rick perry has devoted his adult life to creating a more prosperous taxes. As the lone stars 47th governor, he worked to implement a clear vision for better schools, more jobs, safer communities, and a Brighter Future for all texans. Thanks to his adherence to tough fiscal discipline, governor perry helped shape a job creation environment unlike any other state in the country. With low taxes and Less Government spending predictable regulations, a fair legal system, and increasingly accountable schools, governor perry is texas knows the formula for unmatched job creation. Other states have taken notice. Rick perry enacted meaningful tort reform while in austin making sure that frivolous lawsuits and greedy trial lawyers dont harm good businesspeople. These reforms have helped keep the free market 40 in texas. Allowing free in texas. Allowing employees to hire new workers will bring the wave of new doctors. He saw firsthand the importance of American Military might and learned that peace through strength was what kept the world safe. Prior to being elected Lieutenant Governor in 1998, he served two terms as the texas agricultural commissioner, and three terms in the texas house of representatives. He is the longestserving governor of texas. A fifthgeneration texan son of tenant farmers who learned the values of hard work and perseverance in the Rolling Plains of west texas. Please give a texas sized welcome to governor rick perry. [applause] gov. Perry oh, yeah. David, thank you. It is good to be in South Carolina. [laughter] [applause] gov. Perry texans are fond of South Carolina. Youll sent us a little help through the years. There were some heroes at the alamo that you loaned us for a while. We appreciate that. The commander of the alamo, William Barrett travis. We appreciate that. Thank you. [applause] [no audio] gov. Perry i come to South Carolina because we are still looking for a few good patriots. Once again to fight for this country, we have come to look for patriots. We watched our country to send into record debt. Descend into record debt. We experience the slowest recovery we have ever seen, a recovery of record proportions needs to be on the table for us. We have seen this irs target our citizens. The architects of obamacare they admit they lied. To sell us a bill of goods. You think about the bureaucrats. At the Veterans Administration leaving our veterans waiting in line for care. Some of them have died. I want to take a moment. Everyone of you who wore the uniform of the country, those of you who have family members that have worn the uniform of the country, i want you to hold your hand up just a moment. So we can say thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifice. God bless you. For what you have done. [applause] gov. Perry we watched our president. We watched an end a war without a plan to keep the peace. We watched an issue tough words without action to back it up. He has refused to admit even the nature of our enemy, let alone create a plan to defeat them. We have seen this gross incompetence this naive ideological ignorance, and we are here to declare that we are not going to take it anymore. America can do better. [applause] gov. Perry and when we elect a republican president in 2016, america will do better. We need to return to common sense in america. Its really Pretty Simple. I grew up in a place where there was an abundance of common sense. It was a place called paint creek. It was 16 miles from the closest place in a post office. My mom and dad grew up growing cotton on a tenant farmer. My mom sewed my close for me all the way through college. Washed us in an effort to washtub, until we got indoor plumbing. The greek is interesting, on farm to market road 618. Paint creek is interesting. There were two churches, a Methodist Church in a baptist church. Your choice. I went to paint creek rural school. I very practice share with you i am very proud to share with you that i graduated in the top 10 of my graduate in class and i have to admit there were only 13. [laughter] gov. Perry we didnt have a lot of money. We never thought we were poor. The fact is we were rich. We were rich and values. We were taught the value of hard work and the importance of family. I was taught it was my duty to protect freedom. And that are the principles and values that directed me to volunteer and to be commissioned as an officer in United States air force. I flew these extraordinary piece is a fabulous equipment called c130. All around the globe as a Tactical Airlift or, to south america, to asia, to europe. I spent time in saudi arabia, and bahrain. In turkey. It was then that i developed this profound love and appreciation for the freedom that we enjoy as americans. As republicans we know human liberty is a gift from god. And as the guarantee of our constitution. We all believe the constitution we dont believe the constitution is a cafeteria plan, where you pick and choose the right you like and discard the ones inconvenient your political agenda. [applause] gov. Perry every word in that bill of rights is sacred. And that includes the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and my personal favorite, the 10th amendment. [applause] gov. Perry i do not believe that we need more washington in our lives. We need less. [applause] gov. Perry we need to return power to the states. And freedom to the people. I think there are two types of thinking in american politics today. You have this delusional thinking of the left. It is epitomized by her president. Our president. Where criminals obey gun laws where state sponsors of terrorism will put down their arms to obey a nuclear agreement. Where radical groups like isis are not religious in nature. Now the rest of us, we subscribe to what i refer to as reality. Based thinking. Where terrorist armies must be defeated by strength not words. Where radical nations should not be appeased, theyve got to be opposed. Where the best defense against crime is an armed citizen. [applause] gov. Perry amen. [applause] gov. Perry i think its time to tell the American People the truth. The Obama Administration is isolating our allies. It is embolden our enemies, and the agreement with iran doesnt limit Iranian Nuclear ambitions it legitimizes it. The great lesson in history is the strength and resolve bring peace and order, and weakness in vacillation invite chaos and conflict. [applause] gov. Perry for the last 75 years, there has been a bipartisan consensus that america must project is values and its power. We must engage our allies and our competitors. And we need to confront our adversaries. We cannot take for granted American Power and american influence. The great issue of our time is a battle between the western values of freedom and this totalitarian worldview of islamic fanatics. We are in the early years of this long struggle with violence and islamic extremism. Its going to last for a long time. We must display the same resolve to feed them to defeat them that we did the soviet union. Weve also got to recognize that Homeland Security starts with Border Security. [applause] gov. Perry america has the right to defend its borders. [applause] gov. Perry i told the president last summer if you want to the border, texas will. [applause] gov. Perry and thats when i deploy the Texas National guard to the border, to stop the gunrunning, the Drug Trafficking by drug cartels and these transnational gangs. And you knew this, i knew this, the strategy would work. And it did. Border apprehensions declined by 74 . It is time for washington to do its job, secure the border. [applause] it is time for them to do their job. To deploy the resources needed to secure our borders. To rebuild the military. To reassert American Power of broth power abroad. We need to have Economic Growth at home. We cannot accept one American Worker that is unemployed underemployed, or has given up on working at all. We can not except the one in five of our children in this country is living in living on food stamps. It is time to cut Corporate Taxes to bring the jobs home that we drove overseas by over taxation. It is time to stop the overregulation of the Small Businesses. It is time to bring prosperity to main street, not just to wall street. There is something wrong when the dow jones is near record highs, and businesses on main street cannot even get a loan. That is not right. [applause] ive served on a Small Community bank board back in my hometown. That perspective gives me a worldview and causes me to ask this question. Since when did capitalism in both the elimination of moral hazard for the biggest banks well regulation strengthened our Community Banks . [applause] i think that we are just a few good decisions away, i might add a leadership change is at the top, from reviving our economy across this country. In it could be done. Weve done it in texas during my 14 years of governor we created a third of all the new jobs in this country. In the last seven years. In the last seven years. [applause] from the end of 2007 through 2014 texas created millions of new jobs. Minus those jobs created in my home state, this country lost 400,000 jobs. It is Pretty Simple how we did it. We prioritized education. Texas has the secondhighest High School Graduation rate in the country. [applause] you wanted to tell a kid, send a message to a family, the best way to give their children an opportunity, it is graduating from high school. The formula we put into place is simple. Keep taxes and spending low keep regulations low, stop frivolous lawsuits at the courthouse. That is how you do it. It will work anywhere. Anywhere. [applause] we can do the same for america when we have the leadership in the white house. I believe this with all my heart. My friends, the issue of our time is not overregulation and the slowest economic recovery in history, it is not our failed Foreign Policy, it is not even the halloween of our military it is not even the hollowing of our military. It is the lack of leadership to deal with these crises. 2016 will not be an election about lofty rhetoric, but a record of leadership. It will not be one of those i suggest it will be a show me dont tell me a election. Where voters look past what you say to what you have done. They want a leader with resolve. A leader who says what he means and means what he says. I happen to believe that americas best days are in front of us. I believe we are a few good decisions away from reviving our economy, rebuilding our military, restoring our place in the world. There is nothing wrong with America Today that cannot be fixed with new leadership. [applause] when americans, when historians look back at this era, i hope they will remark that a group of patriots rose up to meet the challenges of our times. That we did not flinch in the threat we did not flinch in the face of the threat to freedom, and we put americans back to work, we stood on the bedrock of our constitutional principles and we protected the liberty and guaranteed every american. That is what our challenges. That is our goal. Lets let america be america again. God bless you. Thank you, brother. Thank you. [applause] wow. How about that. Thank you, governor. Our next speaker, we are on to the next speaker. The next speaker is someone who knows the power of the free market and the American Dream firsthand. Before running for congress she owned and operated a Small Business. She took her private sector experience and conservative principles with her to the Tennessee State senate in 1998 where she quickly became known for strong commitment to fiscal discipline. As a state senator she led grassroots conservatives across the state to stop a state income tax. In 2002 Marsha Blackburn took these Guiding Principles to congress where she quickly earned a reputation as a fighter for small more Efficient Government that is accountable to the people. She is regularly praised by Good Government groups, like the National Federation of businesses the form bureau, and the chamber of congress. Congressmen blackburns wire the most consistent and vocal opponents of obama care. Joining with the American People time and time again in efforts to repeal and replace that illconceived law. Marsha blackburn is a leading prolife and family values advocate. Congressman blackburn serves as the vice chair of the house energy and Commerce Committee as well as four critical subcommittees. She serves on the House Budget Committee and is a Founding Member of the republican womens policy committee. Ladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming congressman Marsha Blackburn the great state of tennessee. [applause] Marsha Blackburn good morning. Are you having fun . You do you love this summit . I think this is fantastic. How many of you have chosen a president ial candidate . I like this. We can all agree on this. In 2016 we have to win the white house. That is a coal that everyone shares. It is important that you are here. I am an old party chairman. This is getting ready for the fight. We know the media will not be with us. They have never been with us in one of our great conservative victories. Think about 1980 and 1984. Look at 1994, two thousand, or 2010. The good thing happening now is the American People are not believing the mainstream press. There is a recent survey that 70 of adults do not believe the evening news. Look at the choices you have got. It should not surprise us. I finally made up nicknames for all of the networks. If you will not tell anyone i will share my secret. Every time you hear them, you can think, there they go again. Abc, i call them the all about clinton news network. Nbc, im a southern girl, nbc is the nothinbut clinton news network. Cnn is the clinton news network. And god help cbs, they are the clinton network. There you go. [applause] you know what i am thinking. That same survey asked people, who do you get your news from and who do you believe . They believe you. They believe friends and neighbors. That is who they are counting on for their news of the day. You, my friends, are the most powerful network in news. How do you like that title . With that title comes responsibility. It is an opportunity for us. We, as conservatives, have a shot on redefining issues and educating people, engaging them reframing the debate. There is reframing we can do. When they beat up on us and say, you need to stop fighting, stop opposing all of your opponents out here. We can say no, we are fighting for people. When it comes to dealing with common core, which ought to be common sense, but we can do is say we are fighting for kids. When we talk about ending the department of education, we are fighting for local control, and we are fighting for parental rights. [applause] when we, in congress, talking about ending obamacare, we are fighting for people that have been abused by this system or may be people who liked their doctor but could not keep him. When it comes to fighting the epa, i am always going to be fighting for freedom of choice in light bulbs and ceiling fans. [applause] we are also fighting for Property Rights for farmers who do not want the epa regulating spilt milk and mud puddles. And for factories to want to keep their doors open for jobs. When we oppose the fcc what are we fighting for . Against a government controlled internet, and for a free and open internet. I have to tell you you get out there talking like that, i think the American People are going to join us on these issues. It will make a difference in 2016. I found it so interesting, did you see the survey . National security is the top issue as we look at the 2016 elections. Frankly, i think all security is a top issue. What i put my head on the pillow at night, and i think youre like me in this, the thing that worries me the most is that this nation is going to cease to be what it has been. That troubles me. It bothers me. I want my children and grandchildren to know what this country is all about. I want them to know and i think we all long for those days where we can say, we know we are safe in our homes and in our communities, our kids are safe after school or the part, and we can go to a sporting event, or go to the mall, and we are going to be ok. We want the assurances that we had that security, and that we can speak our mind and not be bothered. It is called free speech. If we feel like we need to own a gun, we can own a gun. We want to know we can own our property. That we have the right to privacy, and we do not want the nsa listening to our phone calls and reading our emails. We want to know that we are going to be safe and secure. It is a security issue year. The things i ticked off are not new ideas. Theyre not 21st century new ideas. They are found in the bill of rights. It is up to us, as conservatives, to talk about these and to share these ideas i call them 80 issues, with the American Public. 85 of all adults fear that their children will be worse off than they are because they will not know that American Dream. A big part of that dream is assurances. As we talk about security, i want to talk about a couple of issues and that security component. There are things that we are working on in congress. You have great guys from South Carolina who are serving in congress. I want to read you Something Real fast. Listen to them. When we talk about Retirement Security, neither medicare nor Social Security can sustained projected longrun Program Costs in full under currently scheduled financing, and legislative changes are necessary to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers. If lawmakers take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available so the public has adequate time to prepare. That sounds like one of those emails that you get that says send money now, save medicare. Guess where that is from . The 2014 summary of the medicare and Social Security trustees report. That is where you find that. 2016 disability 2016, Disability Insurance goes broke. 2033, Social Security broke. It is time to focus on Retirement Security and make sure the promise the federal government made to you is a promise that will be kept to you in your retirement years. When we repeal obama care, that is 700 billion that obama took from medicare will be given back. It is time to put it back. Tell congress to stop spending the Social Security trust fund and putting it in the general fund. Put it away for seniors so it is therefore retirement. When we look at job security, i think one thing this government has not figured out is the best economic stimulus there is is a job. Ask 93. 2 million americans who are out of work. I have a formula. If we would put this formula to work we would get the country to work. Less litigation plus less taxation plus less regulation equals more innovation and job creation. It works every time. You can take it to the thank. A Strong Economy. A Strong Economy will depend on having free people and free markets and getting regulators out how many of you know of companies or individuals that have been hit by thank by federal regulators. It is time to rein them in. How many fans why have . Country music fans . In nashville we love to play Country Music on gibson guitars. It is a great company. People all over the world love the gibson guitars, except maybe the federal government who sent armed federal marshals through the front doors of gibson. He rated the plays like they were selling drugs. They did this because of the wood. They did not like the wood that gibson was using. They kept gibson tied up for a couple of years, then they finally gave that would back the wood the wood back. Gibson is now building a group of guitars called the government series. On the back of every guitar it there is an equal with the talent drafter on the neck of the guitar. It is time for the government to get their talons off of the next of the American People. Let me say a little about our nations debt. 18 point 3 trillion in debt that we have right now 18. 3 trillion dollars in debt. Next in line is china. They have 19. 85 of our publicly traded it. One p 1. 2337. Then you have the Caribbean Bank belgium, then with 5 of our debt is opec, the cartel. We are trading our childrens future. Cap thing it and trading it to the people that hold our debt. It is time for us to get this out of control spending under control. There are three simple steps we can take. Cut the spending, pass a balanced Budget Amendment and require federal agencies to do what you do. Not start with they were last year go back to dollar one it is called zerobased budgeting. Hold them accountable for the work they are doing. [applause] when i was a little girl i loved to get in the pickup truck with my daddy. We would go into town to work. We would pass a used car lot on the side of the highway. They had a sign in front that said we tote the note. I would say, tell me about this. What does it mean . He would explain what it meant when you didnt have the money when you are heavy into borrowing. He said, dont you ever let anyone tote your note. The United States of america has some heavy note toting going on. We have to get it under control. You do it by spending less and balancing the budget. [applause] lets talk a little bit about National Security. You have heard everybody governor perry, dave, governor walker, talking about the National Security issues. I see it as a threepronged front. In congress some of the conservatives are trying to tackle this. First, honor our men and women in uniform. They are on the front lines. It is killing us in shortsightedness and trying to cut military spending and reduce the size of the military, we need to be bulking it up. We are a nation at war. We are fighting radical islamic terrorists. After they took credit for the attack last saturday, we need to realize it is imperative that we admit that we are a nation at war and that we need to fund the u. S. Military. They have a job to do. The second thing is Border Security. You have to make certain the border is going to be secure. This is ridiculous. You cannot and ilLegal Immigration, sex trafficking weapons trafficking, unless you secure the border. Hillary clinton has come out and said she is going to go further on immigration than obama did. They have been lawless for 20 years, it looks like she is going to try to be lawless again, but we are going to stop her. We are fighting to secure the nation we are fighting for the sovereignty of this nation. When it comes to Foreign Policy that is something we do not have right now. Our allies are wondering where we have been. Israel is an ally. We need to support them, and we need to look at what is happening with russia, with china, with cyber warfare because we are being attacked millions of times every day. Johnny cash has a great song with a line that says still as strong because it knew the hammer and white heat. That is like america. We always rise to the challenge. We are always there to fight. We have done it before, and we will do it again. My grandmother used to say, if it doesnt kill you it will make you stronger. She is right. America will come back. Dave mentioned when i was in the state senate. That is one of the reasons i know you will be on the road to coming back. When i was there, the people of the state rallied with me. It was not a fourday, fourmonth, or four week battle. It was a four year battle. It took us over a decade, but tennessee will forever be income taxfree because the people of the state passed an amendment to our state constitution saying you can never enact a state income tax on the great people of the great state of tennessee. That is what you call a conservative victory. [applause] i want to share with you one of my favorite quotes from a founder, one of our nations founders. I think this quote from dr. Joseph war dr. Joseph warren is so right because it centers on you and your network. Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of on you depend the fortunes of america. You are to decide the important questions on which rest the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy. Act worthy of yourselves. That is our charge for 2016. You get your network together. Are you with me . [applause] all right. Are you going to get out there . Lets go to it. We have a nation to save and elections to win. Thank you so much. [applause] what a great morning session. I hope everyone is enjoying it. We will no break for lunch. If everyone could bear with me for a second. I want to thank the person providing lunch for you. Jenny beth martin who is here with me is our lunch sponsor. [applause] the Tea Party Patriots are a critically important conservative grassroots orientation, always standing tall for liberty, and jenny beth is the rounder and cofounder of the Tea Party Patriots. She is here to say a few words. [applause] Jenny Beth Martin thank you for being here. You play a pivotal role in the elections next year. I am glad you are here as we bring the potential candidates to you and the candidates to you so you can learn more. Make sure to sign up at our booth so you can be in the running for the ipad giveaway. As you are listening to these candidates remember two important issues that the Tea Party Movement cares about, and i think all Americans Care about. Health care freedom. We want to make sure we are electing a candidate that will vote to repeal obama care its entirety and who will work to before the repeal, get rid of the congressional exemption to obamacare. Right now congress is exempt from obamacare. We are focused on getting rid of that exemption to obamacare through congress this year with the help of senators and congressmen. If congress will not act, this was done through executive action to begin with, and it can be stopped through executive action. It is outside the law and is illegal. Congress needs to live under the law. Then, just be sure you understand we want a full repeal of obamacare, as well. That is just a step to get there. We want a balanced budget. We want a debtfree future. We want to make sure the candidates are talking about how they intend to get us to a balanced budget. Our solution is to spend one penny less out of every dollar that congress spends. If they would do that we would have a balanced budget in five years. The simple solution is not hard to do. Thank you for being here. Thank you jenny beth. We will start up again in 30 minutes. Chickfila is in the lobby. They will provide everyone with a free bag of lunch. I want to ask everyone, stretcher likes, eat, use the restrooms, but come back. A focus group will be immediately after lunch followed by the one and only donald trump. Then we have marco rubio and ted cruz on the heels. Come back. Thank you, very much. Our live coverage will continue after this lunch break. Addressing conservative voters at the South Carolina Freedom Summit. The summit is less than one year from the president ial primary. Among the speakers were wisconsin Governor Scott walker, former senator Rick Santorum and former Texas Governor rick perry. Then speaker this afternoon include marco rubio, then carson and ted cruz and Carly Fiorina who both officially joined the white house race this week. One president ial hopeful who is not at this event is former Florida Governor jeb bush, who earlier today delivered the commencement address at Liberty University in lynchburg, virginia. We will air that speech at 8 00 eastern on cspan. In this break we will show you as much as we can while we wait for the Freedom Summit to resume. It is my pleasure to introduce the 2015 commencement speaker, governor jeb bush. Jeb bush thank you very much. Trustees faculty, staff, distinguished guests, faculty and friends i appreciate your hospitality. To all of the graduates, thank you for letting me share in this day as you become alumni of Liberty University. It is good to be here, and to visit with the falwell family. I dad taught very highly of your father, president falwell. He turned his back on no one. His legacy endures, and it only begins with this Great American university. I dad received an Honorary Degree here 25 years ago. Any of you asked this morning how he is doing one month shy of his 91st birthday. Im happy to say he is in good shape. It will stay that way if we can keep his mind off that darn parachute. Today was my first time to be able to meet with pastor jonathan falwell. Jonathan has a unique place at liberty because among other reasons, at this university his father used to be president , then his brother was president. Somehow, i dont know what it was, we really hit it off. [laughter] im not sure what is in store for you jonathan, but i am pulling for you, man. [laughter] the proudest people will not be collecting degrees. The parents of this class might be thinking of another time in your milestones in life or less ceremonious than today. Things like standing up the first time or starting to read books instead of just chewing on them, or performing miracles like blowing your own nose were sitting still in church. It is not always feel that way to parents, but they must have done a lot of things right. Today, by the thousands, liberty is sending forth civilized confident, true hearted then and women, which happens to be what America Needs today. And the rest of the world hardly knew of you you were all of the world to your mom and dad. By the way you still are. How about we show our gratitude to the parents and families of the graduating class of 2015. [applause] i might add, if you earned a liberty degree and have had active duty in the United States military, you are a credit to this university, your country, and we thank you from the bottom of our heart. [applause] whether in the stadium, or an Online Student receiving a degree as of today, Liberty University is in your past. This school and the values it stands for the always be a part of who you are. If theres any useful role i can perform, maybe just to offer one last word bank urge meant in the vocation you have taken up, it is the same one, whatever degree you arent, whatever work you will do, it is the greatest of all callings to know, love, and serve the lord, and it is years by choice. It is yours by choice. You know how to choose a path and stay on it. That is useful knowledge when life can present more choices than we know what to do with. The world will never run short of the competing offers. Youve heard all of them and are not impressed. That wisdom can carry you a long way. The faith that brought you here, that matured here, does not give every answer to every question. Nor does it promise a life spared from doubt or difficulty, but in the way of lifes advantages, each of you has the best there is, and awakened conscience. When you have that going, there is no end to the good you can do or the wrongs you can help to overcome, or the hope you can bring into the lives of others. This is not always come in come as a welcome reminder, but is true all the same. The affliction, the injustice there is no more powerful or liberating influence on earth than the christian conscious inaction christian conscience in action. How strange to hear christian consciousness spoken of as a backward force. Outside these acres of shared conviction, it is a depressing fact that when some people think of christianity and judeochristian values they think of something static, narrow, and outdated. We can take this as unfair criticism, or we can take it as a further challenge to show in our lives the most dynamic and inclusive and joyful message that ever came into the world. These are the days in which christians are expected to praise every faith but their own. He never accepted that limitation, and neither should we. At least a ball in reply to criticism. One of the great things about this faith least of all in reply to criticism. One of the greatest things about this faith is it staring. Loving our neighbors seems like an easy call, especially if you like them already, but how about loving our enemies as a bold challenge to leave our comfort zone and lift our sites to greater purposes. As to the suggestion that christianity is a static faith, that is not how it reads in the original. I cannot think of any other subversive moral idea than the last shall be first, and the first last. Likewise, is it really some premodern idea that gods favor is on the gentle, kind, and poor in spirit . A lot of people, including a few that command armies have not gotten the news. Violence and fear and domination are there rules to live by as many persecuted christians in our time can attest. The matter what they is professed by cruel men, if we can imprint a few lines of truth on their heart we would surely start with the words of the carpenter born in bethlehem blessed are the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. It is a voice like no other. Whether it is captured on scrolls, paper, or in bits of data seeing in the example of francis the saint or francis the pope, affirmed by the witness of ancient martyrs, or by the witness of martyrs dying in his name today no place with a message reaches, no heart it touches, is ever the same. Across our own civilization, what a radically different story history would tell without it. Consider an alternative universe of power without restraint conflict without reconciliation, oppression without deliverance corruption without reformation tragedy without renewal achievement without grace. It is a cleansing of Human Experience without the christian influence. No law in the world, said Martin Luther king, could produce such compassion, genuine love thorough all truism. The Christian Faith joins the assemblies of the hopeless and brings new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. It is not only untrue, but also ungrateful to dismiss the Christian Faith as some obstacle to enlightened thought. Some agent irrelevant creed wearing out his welcome. Whatever the source, it provides the moral vocabulary we only use in america and may it always be so. [applause] try to separate the ideals from the source, as cs lewis observed, is like a rebellion of the branches against the tree. Justice, equality, the worth of every life, the dignity of every person, writes no authority can take away, these are founding moral ideals in america, ma did not come out of nowhere. And they did not come out of nowhere. Every day people are comforting the lonely, serving the week and an ascent, giving hope to the prisoner, and in every way they know loving mercy and living with integrity. That doesnt happen with chance or because anyone ordered it, or because there is a federal program for it. The endless work of Christian Charity in america is what free people do when they have good news to share. How free people live when they have a living faith. There are no blinders on the christian conscience. Try as the world might to try to make us look away from needs wrongs, and make us too comfortable to care, your generation is bringing the christian voice to where it is needed and is not heard enough. This nations efforts to fight harvard he has sometimes taken on an air futility because so much has been to fight poverty has sometimes taken on an air futility because so much has been done and so much needs to be done. So many Young Christians today are showing the way. Moved not by pity by what is but by a vision of what can be. For all who would serve the poor and homeless, you set the standard with your belief that everyone matters, and that everyone has the right to rise. Americas environmental debates can be coldly economical, to sterile of life. You remind us of what is at stake. Christian see in nature requires grandeur. The endless glorious work of the lord of life. Then and women of your generation are striving to be the protectors of creation instead of users, and shippers instead of hirelings, and that moral vision can make all the difference. You understand some moral standards are universal and do not bend under the weight of cultural differences. Wherever there is child waiting to be born, we say choose life and we say it with love. [applause] forever women and girls are brutally exploited or treated as possessions without rights and dignity is, we christians see that arrogance for what it is. Wherever jews are subjected to the oldest bigotry we reject that sin and we defend them. [applause] and all of these causes, and others, your generation is fully engaged, acting by the light of conscience. If any spirit is going to be welcomed in a free society, you think that would be one. At least the founding generation thought so and they wrote the First Amendment. Others have their own fashionable ideas, which can be a relation by themselves. It has to be a problem for christians. That makes it our problem, and our spots has to be the forthright defense of the first freedom of the constitution of the United States. [applause] it can be a touchy subject. Im sometimes asked if i would allow my decisions in government to be influenced by my Christian Faith. I know what they want me to say. The safe reply is no, never, of course not. If the game is political correctness, that is the answer that moves you to the next round. The endpoint is a politician weve heard before. The guy whose moral convictions are so deeply personal that he even refuses to impose them on himself. [laughter][applause] the mistake is to confuse points of theology with moral principles. This confusion is part of a false narrative casting religious americans as intolerant. Trying to impose their views on everyone. The stories vary year after year, but the storyline is familiar. The Progressive Political agenda is ready for its next great leap forward. Religious people and churches are getting in the way. Our friends on the left like to view themselves as the agents of change and reform, and we are supposed to get with the program. There are consequences when you dont flex to the latest secular dogmas. They can be hard to keep up with. We find officials demanding pastors turnover copies of their sermons, or judges is taking themselves for a let it legislators and imposing rights that do not exist in the constitution or an agency dictating to a Catholic Charity the Little Sisters of the poor, what has to go in their health plan. And never mind objections of conscience. I dont know about you, but when it comes to doing the right and good thing the Little Sisters of the poor no better than the regulators at the department of health and human services. [applause] from the standpoint of religious freedom, you might even say it is a choice between the Little Sisters and big rather. Im going with the Little Sisters. [applause] that case continues, and the present administration is supporting the use of coercive federal power. What should the easy calls in favor of religious freedom have become an aggressive stance against it. Someone is being small minded and intolerant and it is not the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women that only want to practice their faith. [applause] federal authorities are demanding obedience and complete disregard of religious conscience. And a free society, the answer is no. [applause] it strikes me that most of the criticism reacted at believers in our day is drawn from hostile character. That is an easy way of avoiding honest discussion. It deepens distrust instead of inviting understanding. We often hear language that divides us and we need the language of goodwill. Theres so much we share in common across lines of region, religion, and demography. In my experience, you find that the same good instincts, fair mindedness and free spirit is found among americans of all types. There is a lot to work with if the aim is to accept differences instead of exploiting them and getting on with life in this free country. As for you graduates, getting on with life is the theme of the day. If your future prospects has anything to do with the sheer number of people wishing you well this morning, you could not ask for a better sendoff. This is one milestone in a long, purposeful journey. At each turn may you find gods loving kindness and may you always be his instrument. From this place to wherever you are bound, in the words of isaiah or you go out with joy and be led forth with peace. Congratulations to the class of 2015. [applause] we will air that speech again with jeb bush on cspan tonight at 8 00 eastern. We are live in greenville South Carolina. The road to the white house coverage will resume shortly after this lunch break. The next speaker is donald trump all at by senators arkle rubio and ted cruz. We will learn a little bit more about this event with the reporter covering the 2016 race. Donald trump followed by senators marco rubio and ted cruz. We will learn a little more about this event with the reporter covering the 2016 race. David rucker is a frequent guest and Senior Correspondent for the washington examiner. He joins us on the phone to talk about the Freedom Summit. How is it being viewed in conservative circles . David most of the candidates will be there. There are some absences. Most of the contenders, announced or not, will have 10 to 15 minutes on stage. Some will talk to the media afterwards. In a sense, it is the begin of the campaign in South Carolina. Third primary, first in the south, midfield for the Republican Party. Many will make their case down here. Who has the most to gain and the most to lose today . David it is so early in the process. This is not a debate it is candidates, one after the other going on stage. You are in upstate, the region of South Carolina where you have conservative too conservative. It is a very red state. The activists are very kyl then, you want to connect with them, you do well and you have a good chance to excite some of the people that will do the work for you here. It is not like you are dealing with most of the voters. You have a broader mix of voters in South Carolina. More than sometimes evil realize. There is not a make or break quality, but there is an opportunity to connect with boots on the ground that will help you down the line. The governor from louisiana at senators ted cruz, lindsey, former Texas Governor rick perry, the entire event is on the Freedom Summit website. David rocker, who will not be there . David jeb bush is delivering a commencement speech today in lynchburg, virginia. Rand paul from kentucky obviously a player in the president ial race, is another. I am leaving someone out. It is in my story. Those two are the most notable. They are both going to compete for South Carolina. What are we to read into them skipping this event . David not too much. Theres always a lot of backandforth with the schedule. Jeb bush was in South Carolina we could go for the state Republican Party conventions. A lot of the candidates were. It is not like he is ignoring South Carolina. In an insiders game, people that are organizing the event want everyone there to make the event more important. No one is really going to remember who is here and he was not. It is a good and who was not. It is a Good Opportunity at the beginning of the campaign to measure the candidates and see how their message plays. I have your story in front of me. Former governor mike occam be Mike Huckabee. David he has a legitimate family commitment. It talk about the organizers. Duncan is one of the top names for the event. Will he be a kingmaker in South Carolina and moving forward to the primary season . David i would look at senator tim scott. He could be the king maker. He has the ability to influence the big insiders and the establishment. And the activists, the tea party activists. Duncan, some of the congressional members, will have their pockets of employments but if there will be a kingdom maker, someone with that influence would be tim scott. Will look for your story on washingtonexaminer. Com. Thank you for your time. The South Carolina Freedom Summit will resume in a few minutes. Following this lunch break donald trump will address the crowd, followed by senators marco rubio and ted cruz. Live road to the white house coverage here on cspan. Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Our program is about to begin. Please take your seats. Our program is about to begin. We are waiting for the South Carolina Freedom Summit to resume in a few minutes. First, the conservative voters will hear a brief focus group. The next speaker will be donald trump, to be followed by marco rubio and senator ted cruz. Live coverage here on cspan. Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. The program will begin in one minute. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome david. [applause] david i hope everyone enjoyed lunch. Thanks to the Tea Party Patriots for providing it. Chickfila is awesome. [applause] look at this crowd. We have a special part of the program this afternoon. The next part is going to be something very special. Jeff duncan and i are thrilled to have frank here to conduct one of his famous focus groups for you live and in person. Frank is one of the most honored Communications Specialists in America Today. He has written supervised, and conducted thousands of surveys focus groups. We have all seen his sessions on fox news, which are amazing. Franks focus groups are entertaining and enlightening. I am excited to watch this one firsthand. Please give a warm welcome to dr. Frank lutz. [applause] dr. Frank lutz how is everyone doing . Can you hear me . How about now . [indiscernible] dr. Frank lutz how about now . Now . Maybe if i use this. [applause] dr. Frank lutz who at some point wants to do a focus group with me . If you do, tell me. Keep your hands up. She is going to send down forms to you guys to sign up. This is how i want to begin this. Hold on for one second. I want to know who you choose. Send the sheets down. When youre done with it, you will send them back in that direction. Im going to count to three. When i get to three, i want you to shout out the last name of the candidate you want the republicans to nominate. When i get to three. [laughter] not one, and not two. Are you guys ready . 1, 2 3. [indiscernible] dr. Frank luntz i am glad we got that clear. When i get to three, tell me who is your candidate. 1, 2 3. Only in South Carolina. Ok im going to put you guys on the spot areas i want you to tell me what is more important to you. Where the candidate stands or whether they can defeat Hillary Clinton. I will start with you since you have a microphone. If you absolutely had to choose by the way, is anyone in the room supporting hillary . Anyone in the balcony . Anyone in the second balcony . What is more important to you where they stand or that they can defeat hillary . Put your microphone up. Where they stand. I think if you can get to the heart of the person that they will project normally and naturally a good and honest spirit and they can lead a nation if they have a good and honest spirit. Dr. Frank luntz what is more important to you . Leading Hillary Clinton, no doubt about it. She has got to go. That is a continuation of a political philosophy this country can ill afford. To even think of having hillary for four or eight years is unconscionable. You can cry as much as you want about philosophy. But if she is telling you how to live your life every day, it is not going to do you any good. [applause] dr. Frank luntz one more. Where they stand. I think in a general election, passionate message is how you win over voters and when elections. Dr. Frank luntz we have two special people here. I want you to hand the microphone to the gentleman in orange. How old are you . I am 23. Dr. Frank luntz this is your son. In some cases, you are old enough to be his grandparent. Some people here are old enough to be his greatgrandparents. Why is it 60 of people of your age voted for barack obama . Why are you voting republican . Felix if the percent did not vote for a republican because they do not feel a sense of belonging. A lot of them are going to college. As a college student, you dont feel a sense of belonging because youre going from your parents to the real world. We are not doing a good enough job expressing freedom to that group. I am a republican because i believe in human exceptionalism. Dr. Frank luntz good for you. [applause] dr. Frank luntz for me for me, understanding why people my age did not vote for republican is because the Republican Party has not reached out to them. It has been reaching out to the generations that vote because most of ours do not vote. Then again, we are losing my generation to the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton. If we dont do something now, we will lose them forever. That is why i am here trying to find them and get some help. [applause] dr. Frank luntz awesome. The reason i am down here is because we will get the final total of the noble number of people here. Up to this point, the largest focus group ever done was 1500 people. We may beat that record right now. [applause] dr. Frank luntz i have another question. For the ladies, by the way, happy mothers day. Happy mothers day to you all. For the women on stage i want three of you to tell me why republicans have done so poorly among women. What is the answer and what is the solution . Any one of you. Go ahead. Somebody go. I am not so sure that we have done that poorly, have we . Dr. Frank luntz yes, actually we have. All right. Lets think about maybe reaching younger women. Those of us here are solid voters. I dont think we spend enough time with the younger women and their issues. Dr. Frank luntz somebody else, another one of the women. I was going to say she is exactly right. I think republicans have to reach out to the young women. In the beginning of our country there was a wonderful Organization Called republican mothers. Our forefathers put it in the hands of these women to raise up their children to be republicans and love their country and know that they are truly pioneers in every sense, including in the experiment of our wonderful freedom like no other nation has. Dr. Frank luntz lets get one more. Right in the center, go ahead. I think now is the real opportunity since the economy has still been struggling. There are so many women in the workforce who may or may not want to be. This is the time to reach out to women who are many of the breadwinners. This is the way to rescue them from a situation they may be in with 1, 2, 3 jobs and raising a family. Is a this is a golden opportunity for the conservative movement to reach out because the economy has not improved. Dr. Frank luntz i want a show of hands from people in the audience. If you have not filled out your cards, please do. We have more if you need them. Send them this way. I want a show of hands. Would you rather have a senator or governor as the republican nominee for president . Raise your hand if you say senator. Brazier hand if you say governor raise your hand if you say governor. Wow. Does anybody here want to tell me why you want a governor . We have microphones. I want a governor because a governor has actually run something. [applause] if they have stay governor for more than one term, they have been successful at running something. [applause] i agree with what the lady just said. They have a record we can look to. They have some proof of what they are capable of doing and what their priorities are by what they have done in the state. Dr. Frank luntz two more from up there. Why a governor . I would agree with someone who has had a leadership position, who knows how to work with people and organize and most important he knows how to run a budget. Dr. Frank luntz one more person for governor. I think we need a leader. I dont think senator or governor makes a difference. [applause] jimmy carter was a governor and he was terrible. Dr. Frank luntz what kind of leader are you looking for . Be specific. A visionary leader who has the skills and experience to implement the vision who is right on every issue. [applause] dr. Frank luntz how many of you think the republicans will lose to Hillary Clinton in 2016 . How many of you think republicans will win in 2016 . [applause] dr. Frank luntz she is tough. The clintons are tough candidates. Why do you think she is going to lose . I think hillary is going to lose because there are too many people that are on to her. We need to get her out before she can even run for the presidency. [applause] dr. Frank luntz one more. Yes, go ahead. You have to hold the microphone. My candidate has beaten the clintons many times. In every race he has ever had, he has fought them and beat them. Governor Mike Huckabee. [applause] dr. Frank luntz remember the rules. We are not supposed to be advocating for candidates. I cannot see your button from here. [laughter] dr. Frank luntz what is the most important issue . We have about four more minutes. Put your hand up. We bring in a couple more people from the audience. David, if you can grab her. What is the most important issue for 2016 . I think it is Foreign Policy and National Security. Dr. Frank luntz why is that more important than the budget . The world is increasingly chaotic. We have had a president failed to lead for seven years. Relationships with israel and our other civilized allies are falling apart. We need someone in there who will take this seriously. [applause] dr. Frank luntz you are one of the younger people here. What is the most important issue for you in 2016 . The number one issue is someone who will shake the status quo and do the things that need to be done. Dr. Frank luntz got it. Most important issue . Economics. Right now in the last four years, we have been sucking wind behind every country. Every other country makes us look bad. If we can pick our own country up, we dont have to worry about propping up other countries. I think it is Energy Independence. If we can support ourselves, we can make the policies we need and not have to worry about the implications of what opec is doing. I think Energy Independence has got to be our number one priority. Dr. Frank luntz by applause, i want to know what is more important to you, economic conservativism or social conservativism . Who says social conservativism by applause . [applause] dr. Frank luntz who says economic conservativism . [cheers and applause] dr. Frank luntz why is economic conservativism so important . I was going to speak on the military and National Security. [laughter] dr. Frank luntz this is why you never do this live. [laughter] i raised my hand before you asked the question. Do you want me to speak on the economy . Dr. Frank luntz go ahead. As the wife of a green beret, i know what the morale of the military is. [applause] our militarys morale is at an alltime low. We have isis in our country. We have terrorists that live next door to us. We have a president who is more concerned with sitting down talking to raul castro with cuba than he is talking to our allies on israel. [applause] dr. Frank luntz hold on one second. I am going to do something i never get a chance to do. We always celebrate our military and that is absolutely essential. Who is a mom, a sister, a daughter or a spouse of a member in the military . Please stand because you give as much of a sacrifice as anyone, and we want to thank you for all that you do. [applause] dr. Frank luntz by the way, i do want to note the gentleman with the mustache stood up. Sir . [indiscernible] [laughter] dr. Frank luntz so was bruce jenner. [laughter] dr. Frank luntz go ahead. I was going to say the last time our military attitude was so poor was when jimmy carter was in office. President reagan came in and struggles across the world. We are americans for it fix problems. We are the light of the world. We as americans are here to say we want somebody who will fight for americans. That is what im looking for. [applause] dr. Frank luntz someone from the audience, go ahead. I think the most important issue is we returned to honoring our constitution as it was given to us by our founders. [applause] if we do that, the rest of the things will fall into place, the social conservativism, the fiscal conservative. All of that will fall into place if we let the federal government do what it is supposed to do and let the states do what the states are supposed to do. [applause] i agree. I agree with all of that. But to me, it is very basic. I want somebody with honor, and integrity, that believes in the rule of law and in his heart mind, and soul, loves america. [cheers and applause] dr. Frank luntz im going to do one more from the audience. Stand up. What message do you have . You have a number of candidates that have spoken already, a number coming up. What message do you have for them about South Carolina and what it takes to win the state . I listened to the first three candidates this morning. I went across the street to hear what was going on over there. We need to hear the truth. Scott walker did a good job. Dr. Frank luntz what do they need to know . They need to tell the truth. Where are you on Border Security . Where are you on life issues, for life and marriage between a man and woman, and fiscal responsibility . They need to tell the truth and put the cards on the table. [applause] dr. Frank luntz our time is up. Which one of you is dave fosseys motherinlaw . Where are you . Over here . I was told if i did not and with you, he would kick my butt. So im going to give you the microphone. I want you to give advice to the 2016 candidates. What do we need to know . One man, one vote. People are coming in this country across the border like rats and roaches in the wood pile. [applause] we have a state like minnesota that says it is not our business to check them out come of we just register them. We have got to get control. That is what they need to know. They need to get that law passed. One more. [laughter] [applause] years ago, i might have been a democrat. But i saw the problem and i went to the Republican Party. I did not wait on them to come look for me. Why do these young people have to be solicited . We are all intelligent people. We need to be voting our convictions and choose a party. [applause] dr. Frank luntz how many of you would vote for her for president . [cheers and applause] dr. Frank luntz this exercise is so essential. It is important that you are heard. It is important that your voice i am so grateful for those of you who stood up and spoke out. I say to all of you, please come join these focus groups. There will be people who will take your information. If you have your forms, send them to the right and we will pick them up. If you dont have a form yet, we will provide it to you. Your voice matters. Your vote matters. This is the most important election of my lifetime, which means your lifetime. I will tell you one thing. If you are the people who are deciding it, i have faith in the future of america. Give them a hand, please. [applause] thank you. Wow. Was that fun or what . How about the lady over here . We are voting for her. That is my motherinlaw. It is true. Our next speaker is the very definition of an american Success Story continually setting the standards of excellence while expanding his interests in real estate sports, and entertainment. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of finance, and accomplish author. Our next speaker has written over 15 bestselling books. His first book, the art of the deal, is considered a business classic and one of the most successful Business Books of all time. Donald trump has lived American Free market principles on a scale few of us can imagine. Taking his family real estate business and turning it into a billiondollar empire with a global brand. He has become the embodiment of the american during, demonstrating for the world the promises of liberty and small Government Economic principles. Mr. Trump has devoted years of promoting the free market, the importance of a strong family, a strong military, and our countrys sacred obligation to take care of our veterans and their families. As an example in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of world war ii only 100 people turned out to watch new york citys veterans day parade. Rudy giuliani called donald trump and asked if he would agree to be the grand marshall of the next parade. Because of mr. Trumps generosity, he made a 1 million donation to the parade. On september on saturday november 11, almost 1. 5 Million People watched donald trump march down 5th avenue with over 25,000 veterans. That is the kind of guy donald trump is. [applause] on a personal note, i have gotten a chance to know mr. Trump very well over the years. He is an unbelievably generous person. My son, who has been running around here today in the orange shorts picking up chairs, is 12 years old. He turned 12 this week. He has had four brain surgeries and two heart surgeries so i spend a lot of my time trying to raise money for childrens hospital. Mr. Trump, just because he knew griffin and is one of the most generous people i know, has bent over backwards to help me and griffin help the children who still need help at childrens hospital. Mr. Trump is forever in my debt, and forever i will be grateful to him for what he has done and to help me and my family. He has also become one of president obamas sharpest critics, never shying away from pointing out when the president is making america weaker or hurting our competitiveness. He has also been one of the loudest to warn about the threat of china fearlessly telling america if it does not toughen up, we wont be on top for long. Mr. Trump was born in queens new york. He is married to melania and a father to three sons and two daughers and the proud grandfather of seven. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm South Carolina welcome for donald trump. [applause] donald trump what a group, what a crowd, what a nice introduction from david. T is a great guy he is a great guy. You are fired [laughter] donald trump i have been dealing with so many politicians lately. I see them all over the place. Sadly, politicians are all talk and no action. They are not going to get you to the promised land. That i can tell you. I heard one of them today saying something i say all the time. You know what that is, you know the expression . Right . Say it . May copy that too. [laughter] write right . Make America Great again. I say it. I actually have an application for copyright and have for a long time. A certain politician got up. He saw me make a speech. I was talking about making America Great again, which is my thing, which is important. I could come up with other themes. So can they, but they copy my themes all the time. Mike huckabee is a nice guy. Scott walker is a nice guy also. He was in my office four or five weeks ago, gave me a plaque. But then he copied my theme, i dont like him. [laughter] my cockapoo, another one i like a lot, said the other day he is not going to cut Mike Huckabee another one i like a lot, said the other day he is not going to cut Social Security. I got this massive crazy standing ovation. Here is this problem the problem. Is they did not cut it, there is nothing they can do. I know where the money is. I know how to bring it in. That is what i do. I built an unbelievable company. Idea with europe idea with europe, asia, china all the time. Made a lot of money in china. The bank of america building, i own a big chunk of it. I beat china. That is how i got it. I have the biggest floor plates in manhattan. I beat china. They dont like me. I like them, actually. [applause] donald trump i have them in my buildings. The largest bank in the world is interim tower trump tower. China bank, the largest in the world, a bank from china. When the chairman came to visit me they sign a lease and the chairman comes from china. Is the head branch in the United States. They pay me a lot of rent. I like that. The chairman came in. I said, tell me how big is your bank . Compare it to citibank. He goes, citibank is a small subsidiary. Its true. 400 million customers. So i respect china, but they are killing us because we have leaders that are incompetent. We have a president that either has bad wishes or is grossly incompetent and certainly cannot negotiate. The new trade deal by the way is a disaster. They dont talk about currency manipulation. That is the tool where all of these countries are beating us and they dont talk about it. The other thing is they talk about large areas where you have Nine Countries and 11 countries. That is not the way to do it. You have to do individual countries because nobody treats as well, because they have no respect for us, but some treat as better than others. You understand that. When you do a vast number of countries, the bad ones get what is called favored nations. They get something very positive for them. The good ones are the good ones. But the bad ones take advantage. The trade package is a disaster. They have to talk about currency manipulation. Now, i have created tens of thousands of jobs over my career. I would be the greatest job president ever, in my opinion. [applause] donald trump but i really think i would be even better at security. When i look at what is happening and the stupidity of what we are doing, as an example fairly recently we were helping what is left of iraq. Think of that, what is left of it. By the way, iran has most of it. The rest of it is had by isis. We spent 2 trillion. We lost thousands of lives. And we have Wounded Warriors all over. I love the Wounded Warriors. They are the bravest people, the bravest people. [applause] donald trump i see them, the Wounded Warriors. So many of them are not even wounded. They have no legs. In some cases worse. But their hearts are unbelievable. They love the country. They are unbelievable people. I help them a lot and i love them. Think about what they ended up getting. So the other day i am watching and seeing our great leaders. In particular, our president explaining what we are going to do about a certain battle that took place a couple of months ago. He is saying we are going in two weeks and hit them here and there. I am saying, well, he must be smart. I bet he is telling them the opposite. Is subterfuge it is subterfuge. But it wasnt im saying to myself, can you imagine general douglas macarthur, was a big fan, of the best grades at west point to this day, i was a big fan. General george patton, i was a big fan of his, he was tough to can you imagine if we had these guys today . Forget it. Our president is saying when we are going to attack and what we are going to be doing and how we are going to be doing it. I said, can you imagine these people . They must be spinning in their grave when they watch this. I actually think, and i will be making a decision soon, i think a lot of people will be happy and some very surprised. I have to say this. I have dealt with the Financial Press and found them to be great. Of course, it is easier. I find many people in the Political Press to be great. But many people are very dishonest. The political media i think they had a lower rating than congress, which is pretty hard to do. They have a lower rating than congress. [applause] donald trump its sort of funny. Some jerk wrote a story the other day about me. I built up a network that is probably over 10 billion. I have employed thousands of people, literally tens of thousands over my life. Think of it. I have a show. By the way, they want to renew it so badly. Im saying no. I gave up a lot. These politicians run, win lose, run again. It doesnt matter. Is like a cycle it is like a cycle. You have guys that did not win elections running for president. Its not supposed to be that way. But they run, and they lose or win. That is what they do. When i run, and if i say yes and a few of you people know what im going to be doing, you know what happens . I give up hundreds of millions of dollars. They can scoff. But i give up a tremendous hit Television Show because they have equal time rules. Youre not allowed to be running for office. You cannot have a show and run for office. Explain that. Now obama can go into all the shows on television, but you cannot have a show. Explain the equal time crack to me. Crap to me. [applause] donald trump so we are going to do something i think is going to be earth shattering. A lot of times, i will ask people when was the last time you saw our great country i love this country. When was the last time you saw the United States when something win something . Positive news . When did we beat china . They just overtook us last year as the number one economic power. We are now second, unthinkable. By the way, that is because they suck all the money out of us. What happens is even worse. They take it from us and loan it back to us. They have trillions of dollars of our debt and we are paying them interest. When was the last time you saw anything good . When did we be china . When did we beat japan . Japan is rearing their head again. They are devaluing their currency, bigleague. They are devaluing. We dont do anything. They send their cars and by the millions. They make a fortune. When was the last time you saw chevrolet be sold in tokyo . Ok . It doesnt happen. It doesnt happen. They dont let them come in. If they did, the people would not buy them. I dont mind the second part. But the first part is not acceptable. It is not acceptable. [applause] donald trump a friend of mine is a great manufacturer. He calls me up. I told the story last week and people said please repeat it. He calls me up and says i am so distressed because i cannot get my product into china. I said, you cant . Tell me about it, i want to make a speech about it. Is that i cannot get it in. We are supposed to have free trade. He said i cannot get my product into china. He calls me up a week and a half later, they have accepted my product. They find all sorts of reasons even though it is better than what they make. He calls me up. They took it that they are charging a surtax of 42 . I say, do people know this . If you look at boeing where they take all their technology, boeing is great. I happen to own a boeing. They wanted their technology. You have heard that. The careful with boeing be careful with boeing. They said we will buy airplanes but we want your technology, everything or we are not buying from you. Now they are building massive plants to create and build airlines. Ok . Im not saying wrong. Look, i love the chinese. I respect them. I told you i have tenets. They buy apartments. They pay me 25 million. I love them. I built apartments that sell for 35 lead dollars, and im supposed to dislike them . I like them, i respect them. There was a story in business week magazine, the 10 things china most wants. Their negotiators are much smarter and better than ours, so it is respect. What happens is the 10 things that china wants, they want all of the United States but forget that. One of the 10 things is anything trump. They love my product. My buildings, my everything. They love trump, because i think they respect me. I think they respect what i say. I have friends in china that call me and i wont imitate the accident accent because they will say it is racist to do that. I have friends in china call me and say, donald, i cant believe we are able to do these things that we are doing to the United States. I cant even believe it, what we are doing. Have you seen the deficits we have with china, japan, mexico . Massive. We are losing fortunes, and we are losing our jobs and manufacturing. What do you do about it . I had one person say you did not say what to do about it, a reporter i respect. He said you talk nicely read he gave me the highest mark for presentation. But not for content. I thought my content was better than my presentation. He said one thing that makes sense. He said you did not say what to do about china. You tax them 35 if they devalue their currency. If they dont get the currency up, you tax the more. The real number is 42 . That is the tax they people in some cases. You tax them 35 . You probably will not collect the tax because they will behave so nicely. They will go down the tubes so quickly. We rebuilt china. They have taken so much. I love apple. I did well with apple stock. Im not a stock person, i like to control my own destiny. And bought some stocks. It goes up like a rocket. Do you consider it an American Company where 100 percent of their product is made in china and other places . They said we will open up a factor in the United States. It is like a p. R. Thing. This reporter i respect greatly. I would tax china bigleague, and i hope they dont behave. A lot of it is the messenger. You can have one guy go in and say we are going to tax you, and they will laugh at him. You can have another guy go in and say we will tax you, and they will be petrified. I will give you an example. This deal with iran is a disaster a disaster. [applause] donald trump i wrote a book called the art of the deal, which i think everybody in the room has read except for the people negotiating for us. They are babies. We have four people over there. Hes a christian, im protestant. He is a christian in a cell because hes a christian, he is a pastor. You know all about it. He should be out immediately. Immediately [applause] donald trump so we are negotiating nuclear. The messenger, remember the messenger. I have people that work for me. They went to harvard and Wharton School of finance. They dont do the job. I pay them a fortune. The same words, everything, they dont come home. What you do is you go in and say, fellows now in all fairness to the ladies, they are all fellows. They have not figured out the ladies are smarter than the men. In 150 years, they will figure it out. Right now, it is all men on the other side of the table. I would say fellas, you have four of our people. Nothing more important than nuclear because of the power of the weapons. President obama talks about Global Warming as the biggest problem we have in the world. Tell tom brady who had 12 feet of snow in front of his house in boston about Global Warming. He cant get out they will say that is local. It is funny. They start off with climate change. Now the new one is extreme weather. They had Global Warming. That did not work. Got too cold. [laughter] donald trump its true. They then had climate change. That was not going great. Now they came up with a beauty extreme weather. Did you ever notice . That is the new word. You will not believe it. I have gotten so many environmental awards. People dont believe it. I believe in clean air. I believe in everything. I go in and say very nicely, fellows, you got these people, let them out. You dont want them, you dont need them, in a vicious prison by the way. Four people, it was three. You have four people, let them out. You dont need them. We want them. Our people are going nuts over it. Their families are devastated. Let them out, a sign of good faith. A sign of good faith [applause] donald trump i tell you what will happen. Remember, it is the messenger. They will say, great, we will let them out. And we dont even ask. We have never even brought up the pastors name or the other names. We have never even made them part of the negotiation. Stupid. [applause] donald trump i guarantee if i was in that position, they would let them out. If they didnt, 5 chance, maybe less. Its good for all of us. Its good for you if you want to make a deal. If they walked out of the room, i would say no deal because they are unreasonable. How about this . We are paying them 700 million a month. We are paying the rent. Reparations. We are paying 700 million billions of dollars. The person in charge of negotiation, marie heart was very nice, i love her glasses. She said in a statement we did not want to talk about that. I think we are giving them 710 million a month. That is serious money no matter how rich you are. Marie said because the question was asked, why dont you make that part of the Nuclear Negotiation . We dont want to complicate the Nuclear Negotiation. Excuse me . One thing has nothing to do with the other, we dont want to complicate the Nuclear Negotiation. Do you believe that . So we are dealing with babies. I call our president the 521 president. We got bergdahl, they get five killers that want to kill us all. They are all back on the battlefield, by the way. We got this piece of garbage named bergdahl. [applause] donald trump who years ago we would have shot for treason. Now they are saying, he doesnt feel good, he had a hard life. When i saw his father standing with obama, i said whoa i love the guise of duck dynasty. They stay at my luxury hotels. With this did not look like duck dynasty. [applause] so even though some people are copying my expressions expression of make America Great again, they will never be able to do it because they dont have the ability. If i run, i dont need any money. I made a lot of money. If i run 110 , i dont care about a building. Of pennsylvania avenue building, i just finished. I took an old tire place and made it the hottest resort in the country. The Old Post Office on pennsylvania avenue between the white house and congress. I dont care. My daughter, ivanka, very smart, she can run it, enjoy it, have a good life. I would put 150 of my energy into making our country rich again. Somebody said, dont say that that is not nice you are talking about money, you are talking about rich. If we dont become rich, these dopes that want to cut your Social Security because china is taking all our money in mexico, the worst. What they are doing to us on the border is incredible. People coming over and taking our jobs. They are building factories. For Just Announced a billiondollar auto plant. They will take the jobs. We will not have the jobs. I know all the killers. I know everybody. I know the underrated once. Some are overrated. I would call up the great guy and say congratulations on your plant in mexico. I think its great, 2. 5 billion. Here is what im going to do. Im going to charge a 35 on every car that comes into the country charge you a 35 on every car that comes into the country. [cheers and applause] donald trump because you are not building it in the United States. We will not let you come across with the illegals, the cars. We got everything coming across. We got note jobs no jobs. Im going to charge you 35 for every car and part made in that factory, and youre going to pay it. He will say no way. The lobbyists will come and see me but i dont give a about lobbyists. [cheers and applause] donald trump i dont care. [cheers and applause] donald trump so the lobbyists will come and see me, or some guy that gave me 100,000 campaign contribution, puts it in a pac. How about these pacs . You are not allowed to talk to anybody. They dont talk, they play golf. Lets not talk about the pac. I dont need pacs. I use my own money. Some guy puts the money in the pac and they go to the president and say he gave you money. Ok, you can build there, we wont charge you. That is the way country is run. Look at hillary, look at all the deals. Theyre saying no deals. Give me a break. Every one is a deal. But every Single Person will be bought off by the lobbyists, the people, all of it. With me, you know what i would say . Forget it. Let me say it to end. Here is what is going to happen. Ahead of ford the head of ford will call me up. First he will be irate. How dare you, this is freetrade . Know, stupid trade no, stupid trade, not free trade. [laughter] [applause] donald trump and i like him by the way. By the end of it, i would say maximum one week, probably one day, he will announce they are not building the plant in mexico. That they are going to build in South Carolina or tennessee. [applause] donald trump the politicians will never get you there believe me. So i am going to be making a decision very soon. I say it, it is very funny. I had the biggest crowds, the biggest standing ovations. Not because they like me. I think i am a nice person. But it is not because they like me. I have the biggest crowds come i get the biggest standing ovations. Then i read these sleazebag reporters. They say donald trump got a smattering of applause. [laughter] donald trump they will say about a loser politician no one is watching that he gave a brilliant speech they are very dishonest. I will say this. Our country has tremendous potential. We have to act quickly. We cannot let it continue to go down the drain. It can be turned very fast. [applause] donald trump for my friend the reporter, china will be taxed bigleague. We are bringing the jobs back, i dont care. Mexico will not be taking advantage of us, they will not be having open borders, and the greatest builder is me, and i will build the greatest wall you have ever seen. [applause] donald trump thank you, thank you. And just to finish, you know who is going to pay for the wall . Mexico with all of the money that they have taken from us, they will be paying off for that wall. Ladies and gentlemen, we will be talking very soon, thank you thank you. [applause] host i will have to go back and watch the footage. [laughter] host i am getting ready to interviews my next speaker, and i will you know, on thursday i was at home in the late afternoon, and my phone rang, and the speaker id said no one called, and i answered the phone, and someone said, is this congressman duncan, this is Mike Huckabee. And i said, wow governor, thank you for coming, and he wanted me to know that he could not be here today, it is his granddaughter partial third birthday today and he made a commitment to his family to be there granddaughters third birthday today and he made a commitment to his family to be there today. [laughter] sen. Duncan also, there is a book, you can to get up, and i wanted to mention that. Our next speaker is someone who is very, very known, he was my roommate in washington for three years, and we served together in the state legislature, and we had a two bedroom apartment in washington. My family was up one day for over a weekend and we were going somewhere, and they were occupying one of the bathrooms and i went on to teds side of the apartment to shower, and i looked down and there was some shampoo there. Think about that just a minute. [laughter] sen. Duncan my friend in florida says it is like a cow looking at a gate, and ted is such a great friend of mine, he is not just a good friend but a good friend, but he best friend, he is a mentor or me, he is a brother in christ, and when i struggle in life, he is the man i want to call on, and when i want to look at the scripture he helped me find our lord and savior. Without further a do, i want to introduce United States senator tim scott [applause] sen. Scott thank you very much. Thank you very much. Now, how many of you all i mean, i only heard part of his introduction, and i heard his part about shampoo. [laughter] sen. Scott i dont think he should have been in my shower anyways [laughter] sen. Scott can i get an amen . And to all of you who do not understand that god blesses you in many ways, would you agree . God bless him with hair because he did not have a beautiful head. [laughter] sen. Scott i am so happy to be home in South Carolina. [applause] sen. Scott it is a rainy day in greenville, and that is better than a sunny day in d. C. Seven days a week hallelujah lets stand up now i know that the donald and that is what i call him, and he had about 20 minutes but i only get seven minutes, so i must be a filler, but we in South Carolina, we pick the presidency of the United States, and we have done a very well. Since Ronald Reagan, we have chosen the nominee, and i have thought to myself, you know my story, i struggled from the position of education, and i grew up in a singlefamily household, i started drifting in the wrong direction, and i flunked out of high school. I failed world geography, and i think i am the only United States senator to ever fail civics. [laughter] sen. Scott and then i went to the United States senate and realized there was a lot of company on the lefthand side of the aisle. [laughter] [applause] sen. Scott a whole lot of competition for low scores i filled spanish and english failed spanish and english. Now when you fail spanish and english, they dont call you i angle bilingual. Everyone who is a High School Dropout knows that common core is not common sense. We know that [applause] sen. Scott we know that so we want a person in the white house who understands that common core is not common sense. The second thing we want in a president , thank you to that one person over there, who clapped thank you very we want a president who understands supplyside economics. [laughter] [applause] sen. Scott there are too many people in washington that actually believe that the government creates jobs. I have been in on to newer for newer i have been a business creator, and we need to make sure that our candidates, and i will tell you when i was a kid growing up and i lost my way, and i met a Business Owner from chickfila. How many of you love chickfila . I know i do. He taught me that having a job as a good thing but creating jobs is a better thing. He says if you have an income, you have done well, but lets create a profit, and you can do superwell. We need to understand a high taxes and high regulation is not the way that you hire more people. Weve got to get that right. We have to understand that doctors and patients should be in charge of health care, not the health care not the government and not obama. That has got to go. I used to sing a song to obamacare, it was hit the road jack and dont you come back no more. All, i thought you were going to sing along with me oh, i thought you were going to sing along with me. We wanted to ensure that obamacare would not continue to destroy Small Businesses across the country. The backbone of this country is Small Business. Finally, when i think about the president ial nominee, i will support nominee that i will support, we need to have someone who will stand front and center and recognize pour allies and have confidence for allies like israel. [laughter] [applause] sen. Scott the bible says to pray for the peace of jerusalem, and those who do will prosper. We should put our confidence in gods words. We should put more confidence in our allies like israel and not her adversaries like iran. Our adversaries like iran. It makes sense. And if we do it right, and i think we will, we will introduce the next American Century led by a United States president who restores our confidence in american exceptionalism. The emergency and we know it is an emergency it is like 911, we really need a new president of the United States of america, i heard the sound of a rising wind it is time it is time, what you got . The United States needs to come together to elect the next president of the United States starting with the president ial primary process here at home. I will close with this. Over the next several months, i will host tims town halls where we will bring each candidate, one at a time, and i will get them to dr. Us. To talk to us. And duncan will come and we will have a great conversation with citizens throughout her state our state, and you will determine momentum throughout the nation, and the candidate who wins in South Carolina will win the nomination. Can i get a hallelujah . And when we do so, all of gods children will join in the street and i wont go there. [laughter] but it is so good to know that audiences like this will help us choose what happens in this country. I still believe that americas best days are ahead of us. Our strongest stand has not been made. The foundation on which we stand is god and god alone, and as we bow our knees and raise her hand our hand, we will see america rise to the occasion. God bless you. Because, you have another guy coming in, and god bless you. [applause] sen. Duncan wow, thank you senator scott, what an amazing guy. Host wow, thank you, senator scott, what an amazing guy. My next beaker had his parents come from cuba and america became the shining city on the hill as they worked their way into the middle class and were able to provide for a life that had been previously out of reach. Growing up, marco rubio saw this from a early age. He learned that hard work and sacrifice led to achievement. Above all, he saw how hard work transformed his family. He knew that in america anything was possible. Senator rubio believes that this country has given him so much, the opportunity to graduate from the university of florida and then the opportunity to go on to the university of Miami Law School and go on to raise his wife annette, and to raise their four children and to give back to public service. He is a state legislator who rose to become speaker of the house of representatives in the state of florida in 2011, he then became state senator. Citizens united became an early supporter of marco rubio back in 2009. He ran on bedrock conservative risible and defeated his establishmentfunded upon it charlie crist. [applause] host that what is a hard one to forget. Marco rubio has led to institute conservative ideas to address our nations fundamental Economic Issues and to restore hope and the American Dream. His ideas are firmly rooted in this simple truth, the American Economy is changing significantly in recent decades, and our policies must change with it. He has proposed conservative reform to our nations antipoverty laws, tax code, regulatory policy, education system, and vital Senior Safety net programs, and our National Defense. Across America Today, too many people are wondering if the American Dream is still possible. Our next beaker has no doubt speaker has no doubt about it. Ladies and doma, please welcome senator marco rubio and gentlemen, please welcome senator marco rubio. [applause] sen. Rubio wow, there are people on the balcony, all the way at the top, thank you for having me. It is a real honor to be here, thank you very much, it is a real honor to be back in South Carolina, people have believed in me, and your great former senator, jim demint, was the first person in washington to support me when the only people who thought i could when were the people at home. [laughter] sen. Rubio and four of them were under the age of 10. [laughter] sen. Rubio this is a long way from where i come from not just geographically but literally. Both of my parents were born into poor families in cuba. My father never really got to go to school, by the way. When he was nine years old, his mother passed away and he would have to go to work and he worked for the next 70 years of his life. My mother was raised by a disabled father who struggle to provide for them. They met and they got married and they worked hard but they were like most people who ever lived, no matter how hard they tried, they could not get ahead because they did not come from a rich or politically connected family. In 1956, they made the decision to leave behind the only country they had ever known and come to the one place on earth where people like them could have a chance. Here in america, my parents never became rich or famous they worked hard and a preserve your, and my father was a bartender, my mother was a cashier, a maid, a stock clerk at kmart, like i said, they were never rich or famous, but they were successful. They were successful because less than a decade removed from the despair that i described to you, they found good jobs, they owned a home, they raised a family, and they left all four of their children better off than themselves. Date lived what became to be known as the American Dream they lived what became to be known as the American Dream. For starters, america was the most powerful nation on the earth, called upon not once but twice to help the world confront and defeat evil. Our economy was the envy of the world. An economy that had millions of jobs with jobs that paid enough to help people achieve a better life. But now in the early years of this new century, everything feels different. There are questions about whether america is still the most powerful country in the world. China is increasingly claiming territory in the south china sea, newton invades his neighbors putin invades his neighbor and radical jihadists be had christians and even conducts attacks in texas. And barack obama appears unable to do anything about these things. At home, there are questions about whether the American Dream can survive for much longer. People are living paycheck to paycheck, and one expensive place away from a catastrophe. Many people of thousands of dollars in Student Loans and their degree did not lead to a job. For the first time in 35 years you have more Small Businesses dying than being born. So why is this happening . Why is this happening to the greatest nation on earth . At its core, the reason is this because the economy of the world all around us is undergoing historic and dramatic changes. But we are still led by too many people who are trapped in the past by ideas that no longer work. What this reminds us is that we are at a moment at our nations history where we will decide whether to embrace the future or confront its challenges or to be left behind by challenges. If we choose to embrace the future i want you to believe that the 21st century will not just be as good as the 20th century, it will be better, and the American Dream will reach more people and change more lives than ever before. But to do this, we have to wake up to the reality that yesterday is over and to turn the page and to be proud of our history and to embrace the future. American has always been about the future. We want to expand the stream to reach more people and to change more lives than it ever has. This begins i excepting the mantle of global leadership, by understanding that we have to because there is no nation and the world that can do it instead of us. That begins by having the Strongest Military power in the world. [laughter] [applause] sen. Rubio continues by working with our allies in asia and the racing borders and boundaries and control the sea and shipping lanes of asia. In europe, by reinvigorating a nato and to prevent Vladimir Putin by redrawing the lines of europe. In the middle east, by confronting irans convictions to take over the region and standing firmly with the only proamerican Free Enterprise democracy in the middle east israel. [applause] sen. Rubio but also to not just find radical islamists, but to defeat them. People ask what should our strategy be, i refer them to the movie taken. Have you seen the movie taken, with liam neeson . He says, we will look for you we will find you, and we will kill you. [applause] sen. Rubio at home, we need leaders that understand, that understand we need investment in business, and for our government leaders, they think we can keep taxing and regulating, but we cant, and we need to be able to compete with other countries. Thats why we need reforms to our tax code and 12 regulations so that america once again becomes the best place in the world to work, to start and tax regulations so that america can once again become the best place in the world to work, to start a business, to buy a house, to raise a family. And we want to was again balance our budget and to repeal and replace the law that discourages people from taking the place of others at work. We also need leaders that understand in the 21st century the bestpaying jobs in this century require more skills of than ever before. But we have an outdated Higher Education system that is leaving for too many people behind, stuck with loans and agrees that the only two jobs, degrees that too many of our people today have found are inaccessible to them because they have to work fulltime to raise a family. And that is my point that i am trying to make two people when i talk about this, that at 2016 it is not just a choice about the laws that we are going to pass, it is not just a choice about what party is going to govern our country, it is the fundamental question about what kind of country we are going to be in this new century, and if we want it to be the greatest era in the American Century. Im running for president. Im asking for your vote because while america owes me nothing, i have a debt to america that i will never be able to repay, but i believe that i must try to ensure that people who are trying to do what their children what my parents did for me and still do it in this new century. If we can achieve that, we will usher in that new American Century. The future will be better than our past. Our children and our grandchildren will be the freest and most tourists americans prosperous americans of that ever lived. Thank you, and god bless america. [applause] that is what you call the dramatic pause, right . [laughter] i am backstage and talking to someone that you might enjoy. This person is the 34th United States senator from the state of texas, he won a decisive victory in both the republican primary and the election having never been elected to Public Office. National review has described him as a great reaganite and as good as it gets and the National Federation of independent business describes him as critical to Small Business and Free Enterprise in america. Teds observation of the pursuit of freedom and opportunity in america is due to his mother been born in delaware to his irish family. She became a pioneer in Computer Programming in the 1950s. Computers were rather large back then, i think. His father, raphael, who is backstage, as well [applause] sen. Duncan he was born in cuba and was imprisoned and tortured, and he fled to texas penniless and not speaking a word of english. He paid his way through the university of texas and today his father is a pastor in alice, and if you have not heard him speak, you need to look that up. What a fine gentleman. [applause] sen. Duncan a little bit more about ted cruz, he has offered 80 u. S. Court briefs and offered 43 oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court, i think the guy knows what he is doing, i am proud to call him a friend, the United States senator from the state of texas ladies and gentlemen, United States senator ted cruz. [applause] [whistling] sen. Cruz god bless the great state of South Carolina. So is this the ready for hillary rally . [laughter] sen. Cruz i think the men and women here are more than ready for hillary. What a blessing. What a blessing to be with so many compatriots on this day. You know, a couple of years ago, heidi and i had our it was a sunday afternoon. We decided to drive the girls down to mount vernon. We are driving down the George Washington parkway. It is one of those crisp fall days where you can smell the autumn air. Our two girls are different. Catherine is sitting quietly in her car seats. Catherine is taking the back of my seat. The girls start to have a conversation. Heidi and i listened quietly. Caroline asks her little sister she says, catherine, what do you want to do when you grow up . Catherine says, i want to work in the United States senate. I want to work with daddy. And caroline says, that is born. She tosses out the singer. She says, besides, daddy will be dead by then. [laughter] this is a real conversation. I wonder if caroline had been speaking with republican leadership. The reason so many of us are here in this great gathering. We love our grandkids and this nation is in crisis. This is not a typical time in politics. We are at the edge of a precipice. I dont think we have hit the point of no return yet but it is close. It is now or never. We either pull this country back or we risk losing the greatest country in the history of the world. Today, for the first time in history, a majority of americans believe that our kids will have a worse life than we do. 65 , that has never been true in history of america until this instant right now. Maybe the most unamerican idea you can imagine. I think the central issue in 2016 is going to be how do we reignite the promise of america. How do we get back to that fundamental american ideal that our kids will have a better life than we did and their kids will have a better life than they did . Im here today with the word of encouragement of hope and optimism. Three simple things that we can do to reignite the promise of america. Number one. Bring back jobs and growth and opportunity. The men and women here understand cause and effect. Every time we go down this path of outofcontrol spending taxes, regulation, what results is stagnation and misery. It doesnt work. On the other hand, the two lovers government has to unleash Small Businesses and job creation. We should adopt a simple flat tax. Where every american can feel out his or her taxes on a postcard. And when we do that, we should abolish the irs. [applause] there are about 90,000 employees at the irs. We need to padlock that building and take every one of those 90000 and put them on our southern border. To our friends in the median, i say that somewhat tongueincheek. But think about it for a second, a mentioned you had traveled thousands of miles in the blazing sun, you are swimming across the rio grande and the first thing you see is 90,000 irs agents. You would turn around and go home too. At the second tool for jobs and growth and opportunity is regulatory roof. I was out in west texas and i asked folks there, what is the difference between regulators and locusts . The thing is, you cant use pesticide on the regulators. And this old formerly back and he said, one of that . Wanna bet . We have seen regulators to send like locusts, killing jobs all across this country. The simplest and most important Regulatory Reform we need to repeal every word of obamacare. The second key to regarding the promise of america is to defend our constitutional rights. All of them. We need to defend the First Amendment, the free speech, our religious liberty. All of us, our hearts are breaking as we saw what unfolded in indiana and in arkansas as those they stood up to defend religiously reading defend religious liberty and the democrats joined with business to say that their commitment in all of the United States trumps any commitment of the First Amendment. It wasnt too long ago there was bipartisan consensus on the First Amendment. We might disagree between democrats and republicans on marginal tax rates, but when it came to religious liberty, we stood as one. How far we have come. Let me say indiana was a sorting moment as reagan would say. A time for choosing. There are candidates running in 2016, even candidates in the republican field who, when indianas was being battle, they were no are to be found. I can tell you this, when it comes to standing for the religious liberty of americans i will always always always stand with the First Amendment. We need to defend the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. A couple of weeks ago, we talk in New Hampshire, went to a firing range, my wife heidi was that a full auto and a cap that said armed and we need to defend the 10th amendment. The fundamental protection that says the powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states and its people. They need to defend this nation and we need to stand with the men and women of our military, we need to secure the borders. There are other areas the federal government has no business being involved and right at the top of that list is education. We need to repeal every word of common core. Education is too important for it to be covered by unelected bureaucrats in washington, it needs to be at the state level the local level where we have direct control over it. We need to restore americas leadership. For the last six years, we have seen the consequences of the Obama Clinton foreignpolicy. Leading from behind does not work. And we cannot win a war on radical islamic terrorism with a president who is unwilling to utter the words radical islamic terrorism. Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister netanyahu, imagine americas standing unapologetically with the nation of israel. We saw the ugly face of islamic terrorism in my home state of texas. In garland, where two jihadists came to commit murder. They fully one Police Officer help them meet the virgins. Is it time for choosing where we stand. I was in fort hood, where the soldiers that were shot or finally awarded the purple heart. It took over five years for that to happen because the Obama Administration refused to knowledge that was terrorism. Instead, it was workplace violence. I tell you the reason those purple hearts were awarded i was very proud last year to introduce legislation in the senate to mandate that the pentagon awarded those purple hearts. We won support over the active opposition of the obama pentagon and finally, those awards were given. I shook the hands of each soldier, i shook the hand of each wife or child of the 14 innocent souls who were murdered that day. Alike can say to them was i am sorry. I am sorry this took five years. This should have been acknowledged the day it happened, not five years too late. The great state of South Carolina plays a pivotal role in our nation. You have the blessing and the curse. So you are going to see president ial candidates to send upon you like those federal regulators and locusts. My one request is to please hold back on the pesticide. I will tell you, the responsibility of this great state in the Republican Party is to ensure that we nominate a conservative. How do you tell . Because every candidate, and i dont know, there might be 15 20, it might be the phonebook. Every one of them, i am the most conservative guy who ever lived. I am pretty confident, if you had any speaker who said, who stood up and said, im establishment moderate who stands for nothing. They dont say that. So, how do you tell the difference . The scriptures tell us, you shall know them by their fruits. And i would encourage each of you to ask every single candidate who stands up in front of you, you say you believe these principles, show me. When have you stood up and fought for them, when have you bled for them, what have you accomplished . If you say you oppose obamacare, when have you stood up and fought to stop it . If you say you oppose president obamas unconstitutional executive amnesty, when have you sit up and fought to stop it . If you say you support the First Amendment, where were you in indiana . If you say you support the Second Amendment, where were you when harry reid and the president were coming after our gun rights . If you say support the 10th amendment, if you say you oppose common core, when have you stood and fought on this principles . If you say support life and marriage, when have you stood and fought to defend marriage . You say you support israel when have you stood and fought alongside israel . When have you stood and fought to stop iran from Getting Nuclear Weapons . Many of you may hear this and say, i agree with all of this, but how can you make it happen . It will not come from washington. Washington is broken. I have seen it firsthand. It will only come from millions of courageous conservatives rising up to say that we want our country back. I inspired, hopeful, optimistic because of the men and women in this room. We are building an army, a Grassroots Army of courageous conservatives. For each of you that have your cell phones. Would you pull it out and text the word constitution to the number 33733. Let me give you that again. The word constitution to 33733. The hope for this country will come from the men and women across this country like the reagan revolution, pulling us back. It was a century and a half ago. South carolina spent many of you know my father, pastor rafael cruz. My father saw freedom taken away in cuba, i will tell you what he said to me. I lost my freedom once. I will die before it happens again. Im going to close with just telling a quick story. On january 20, 2017, an elderly man walks up to the front gate of the white house and asks the marine there, says excuse me, is barack obama here . The marine says, im sorry barack obama is no longer president of the United States. The next day the same elderly gentleman walks up to the gates to say, he sees me, sir, is barack obama here . The marine size and says once again, im sorry sir barack obama is no longer president of the United States. The next day the same elderly gentleman walks up to the gates the same arenas there and he asked the question one more time. This time the marine size heavily and says sir, i have told you three days in a row barack obama is the longer president of the United States. The little old man with a trickle in his eye, he says, i know that, i just love hearing you say it. [applause] the marine salutes and says, see you tomorrow, sir. Change is coming. God bless you, god bless South Carolina. [applause] are you having fun yet . I know i am and i know it has been a long day. The next speaker is someone that you dont want to miss. You heard me talk earlier about meeting bold leaders. If you look at the name of the function we are at, it is the Freedom Summit. We need leaders who are willing to be bold. You can call the fort hood shooter ands workplace violence. When you say the Islamic State is not islamic, when you beat around the bush and you consistently downplayed the threat of islamic terrorism, you are putting our country in danger. How can we hope to defeat our enemy if we are not able to discuss our enemy in real terms . The next speaker has no problem talking about the enemy in real terms. He is a bold leader on National Security and someone with a track record being bold, that is investor john bolton. He was appointed representative the United Nation and he served until his resignation in 2006. He served as the undersecretary of state for arms control and interNational Security from may, 2001 to may 2005. During his tenure, listen to this, during his tenure, ambassador bolton was as tenacious and outspoken effort of the u. S. Efforts to prevent iran from developing a nuclear weapon. I am the vicechairman of the sovereignty caucus because i believe in american sovereignty. Please welcome ambassador john bolton. Ambassador bolton thanks to all of you for being here today such a lovely day outdoors and you are all at in here. It is important for the safety of our country that in 2016 that we elect someone who understands that his job is to be president of the United States and not secretary general of the United Nations. Fact, i really think that this is the most critical decision that primary voters and caucusgoers have to make, and the special role that you and South Carolina have with a few other states to be able to focus the republican president ial nomination and the qualities we need and the objectives that we should seek into our nominee would be. I think without any question the economy, obamacare, there is a long list of issues. That is not a view of the current income bit. I think he believes National Security gets in the way of israel priority, which he told us in 2008, which was to fundamentally transform the country. That is what he wants to do. National security is a distraction from that which is why he doesnt pay any attention to it. I think in a nominee that the first thing that we should search for is the instinctive sense that not just at an intellectual level, not just at the level of reading a speech but emotionally and in their hearts, the candidates know that whatever issues that are out there, their job as president when they wake up in the morning to have as their first thought what threats does the United States faced today . What am i going to do to prevent them from coming into reality. Someone who has proved that on the job training doesnt nurse early work. We cannot afford to make that mistake again. We will face increased herrell around the world because our adversaries can read the calendar just as well as we can. They dont know who will be elected in november of 2016, but they know they have barack obama until then. Any adversary out there to out there with an agenda we will see the prospect after the new president has sworn and is even more fearsome. We have a moment to him build up around the world. It is very adverse to the United States. We know the most likely democratic nominee for president , unless she selfdestructs before then, is Hillary Clinton. This is a depressing prospect, i admit. But lets be clear. Although her 10 year was an abject ale year, it is her only extensible abject failure, it is her only up stencil qualification only extensive qualification. It will be critical for the republican nominee to beat her soundly on an issue that should be ours. The Republican Party is the party of National Security. There is no National Security wing of the Democratic Party anymore. If we abandon our basic and suppose, not only will it be bad politics for us, it will endanger the nation. With the level of threats we face around the world rising, even if hillary is not the democratic nominee, her philosophy and obamas philosophy art embedded in the Democratic Party. Thats what they all think at the president ial level. I can tell you from experience hillary and bill were ahead of me in law school. I would like to say i have been burdened with them 20 years longer than the country. The way a person is at that time of their life, thats pretty much the way you are going to turn out to be. She was a radical then and she is a radical today. She doesnt have to work to get to the left of elizabeth warren, shes already to the left of elizabeth warren. You are going to see it more and more as the campaign proceeds. Her foreign and defense policy are indistinguishable from Barack Obamas. The failure of his administration are her failures. Starting right now with the utterly inadequate response to the continuing and growing threat of international terrorism. It is simply wrong to say as the president continually says that we can handle terrorism as a Law Enforcement matter. It is not a Law Enforcement matter. It is a threat on the scale of a war, which we understood as a country right after the 9 11 attacks, in which the president and Democratic Party have done their best to try to make us get. The fact is open as policies have directly contributed to increase threats, which we see in the United States today. It was his decision to with draw and other Coalition Forces in 2011 because of the collapse of the effort to make iraq into a country that gave iran the ability to take over the government in baghdad and therefore directly contributed to the rise of isis. That is where the responsibility lies. You havent heard Hillary Clintons say one word of criticism of the president s policies in that regard. That particular claim may or may not be true. As sure as we are sitting here, isis is training terrorists to carry out individual acts of terrorism. This threat is real, it is growing. It is something the Obama Administration has completely underestimated during its entire tenure in office. It is the Obama Clinton foreignpolicy in operation. It failed on the day of the attack and it has failed consistently since then. Of course hillary doesnt want us to talk about it. She doesnt wanted investigated. Of course she doesnt want to testify. She is culpable. A year and a half before that attack we had to with draw our personnel from libya as gadhafi was being overthrown. Do you know how we evacuated our diplomats . We rented a greek ferryboat. Thank god they got out without incident. Dont you think a responsible administration would have said this is a problem, that we can face this kind of violence again . They didnt take the steps necessary to protect americans. It is not just official americans, it is missionaries and nongovernmental organizations, all of whom are in jeopardy. By not undertaking any preparation, they set up the events of 9 11 in benghazi. On that day the response of the administration was to go home. The president left the oval office and situation room to go to the residence. Hillary clinton left the state department to go home. Not once on that day did she call the secretary of defense to ask what we were doing. She didnt say in a way didnt stay in a way the six secretaries would have stayed overnight. That act alone disqualifies her from being president of the United States. And in the aftermath of the attack, the sum total has been to arrest one of the people responsible and bring it back to the United States for a full due process criminal trial. What lesson does that send to the terrorist all around the world . What lesson does it send to the state sponsors who armed them and equip them . It says an american ambassador, who is a personal representative of the president of the United States overseas, can be murdered by a group of terrorists with complete impunity. Under barack obama you can kill his personal representative and he does nothing. That is the lesson that it sends. Will Hillary Clinton answer any questions about this . No. Especially since her last outburst. That disqualifies her from being president as well. People have criticized susan rice for the nonsense she said about the attack on the mohammed video. I think being an ambassador as a wonderful job has nothing to do with our embassy in libya. Where was Hillary Clinton that weekend . She didnt want to go out and answer the question. She doesnt want to testify before congressman before the congressmans committee. Her unwillingness to answer the questions shows how vulnerable she understands herself to be. As we get close to november, we are not going to let her forget that. This list of failures is a long list. Im just going to take a few more highlights. I think the treatment of obama and Hillary Clinton, their treatment of israel is describable in one word. It is despicable. They have humiliated a democratically elected ally. They have undermined the very legitimacy of the state of israel. They have question its democratic bona fides. They have pushed it to get up with vital strategic territory in order to create a palestinian state that will inevitably be another terrorist state, and they have completely disregarded israels no chance of years that are armed with Nuclear Weapons capable of carrying out a Second Nuclear holocaust. Anybody who believes in the solidarity of the west has to reject the obamaclinton approach and rejected emphatically. It undermines our own safety. When you look at how this administration has treated israel the question we ask ourselves is if that is the way the United States treats its friends, how will they treat us when our time of trouble comes . It undercuts our alliance structures. Our adversaries know it. Hillary clinton will go down in history as the person who gave the Russian Foreign minister the famous reset button. Theyve invaded the ukraine. That is the reset to be sure. The response has been so inadequate that we now face the prospect that Vladimir Putin will press the Nato Alliance and baltic republics. And obama and clinton have only themselves to blame. It was barack obama himself who told then president you tell the president we will be flexible once the once it is over. We see aggressive, belligerent territory claims. We see China Building a Blue Water Navy for the first time in 600 years. They will conduct joint naval maneuvers in the mediterranean sea. That is a long way from china. We ceased date structures since world war i. It is to a region slipping into chaos. We know libya is in chaos. We see bo boko haram dismembering the state in northern highchair northern nigeria. Somalia hasnt had a government in 25 years. The cyanide plants on the the cyanide peninsula is out of control. A branch of isis and the coalition of surrogates for the ayatollah and iran. They have ceased to exist as states. A isis has created a new sunni state out of the western third of iraq in the eastern two thirds of syria. It will be a magnet for international terrorism. Winston churchill said we should have strangled bolshevism. They controlled territory the size of great britain. The biggest problem of all is proceeding along with no impediments whatsoever. There is a lot of talk about congressional oversight. I have to tell you it is fundamentally irrelevant. If it is not signed or approved by congress, iran will get Nuclear Weapons. It wont end with iran with Nuclear Weapons. Saudis, egyptians, turks, and others will get Nuclear Weapons and the prospect of a nuclear war and an already volatile middle east will rise dramatically. The failure of the United States to stop the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program now turns the spotlight on israel. I dont know what they will do, that they will do this sometime in the next two years. We will see in the third time of its history of israel attacks and Nuclear Weapons program in the hands of a hostile state. I think the United States position should be clear if israel does this. If we should say this was a legitimate exercise of its inherent right to selfdefense and we will support them every way we can. Lets talk about what must begun, what a new president must do. Thinking about the transition between jimmy carter, who we can look on as a toughminded president compared to the one we have in office now. Ronald reagan, who we can say with confidence won the cold war. We need a president who will immediately reassert american Political Leadership around the world, wholl save the principles reagan espouse are back and the United States is no longer going to be from behind or anywhere else. It has to be coupled with something else. We need a massive increase in the Defense Department budget that the Obama Administration has eviscerated over the past six years. There are a lot of competing pressures. People worried about expenditures and the National Debt. I think there is a relatively easy answer. Why dont we cut domestic expenditures back to 2008 . That will pay for the military budget increase. We need a president who understands america is a benign and strong force in the world that american strength does not provoke animosity that what dangers our country is american weakness. A president can fix every mistake barack obama has made. Are we having a good time, or what . And have in the time of my life. Im having the time of my life. Our next speaker is perhaps known for his strong leadership during the dark days that followed the terrorist attacks of 9 11. He forged a steadfast partnership with new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani and an Immediate Response to the terrorist attacks, while gracefully honoring those who have fallen. He led the emotional and physical renewal of rebuilding new york city and of new york state as a whole. George attack he began his legal career as mayor of new york, then moved on to the state legislature and was elected governor of new york in 1994. Defeating liberal icon mario cuomo. Governor pataki served three terms as governor, being elected in 1998 and 2002, for a republican in heavily democrat new york. That is no small feat. Governor pataki worked to lessen the decades of high taxes on the private sector. He saved to 140 billion. As a fiscal conservative, governor petaca he raised a 5 billion deficit and left the state with its best Credit Rating in 30 years. It is my honor to introduce to you the 53rd governor of the state of new york, george pataki. [applause] governor pataki thank you all. I call you are fellow freedom fighters. Do we have any former new yorkers here this afternoon . When i was governor and i came down to South Carolina, i knew he was going to change the state. Liberalism doesnt work. Coming down, i have been following news this week and i thought i listen to what the media sees as a crisis. I have been following it and it involves missing emails failure to turn over a cell phone. The biggest crisis about cell phones and email servers are email messages is whether or not the patriots deflated a football. Destroyed emails, a private server that wouldnt be turned over. The nfl spent six months investigating and appointed a lawyer, the equivalent of a special prosecutor. To investigate Hillary Clintons illegal use of emails. I heard a number of the speakers and it has been a tremendous day. I have a great life. I love what i do. Our kids are thriving. Everything was great. Open the newspaper. Im here this afternoon for one simple reason. I think it is the greatest today that it has been in my lifetime. That threat is twofold. It is a domestic threat from an ever growing more powerful washington, d. C. And federal government. The second threat is radical islam. I think back to how brilliant they were. You know what they thought was the greatest threat to the new freedom they have earned in the American Revolution . Not some overseas entity, their greatest fear was a Central Government. That is exactly what they fight against, they fought against their own government. They learned better. Data and worry that it would be too weak or too decentralized. We did have window is too big and too strong. That is why we are not a democracy, we are a constitutional republic. We are sitting in washington, that travels the constitution. I never had as many people working with me in making my decisions as the Obama Administration or any other of the liberal governments who think they are smarter and more intelligent than we are. We have to take back that government. Let me tell you one of the first things i would do, reduce the size of the federal workforce by 15 . Too many bureaucrats. We didnt need as many bureaucrats in the health department. We wont need as many workers in the education department. When we stop the epa, we wont need as many air ands many as many bureaucrats in the epa. We could have a much smaller irs and get everyone involved in those political scandals. We can reduce the size of the federal workforce. I will tell you something, i know we can do that. When i became governor of new york i saw the same thing, a bureaucracy, a government that was too big and too bloated. They try to come up with do forms. When i left the State Government had been reduced by over 25,000 workers. But of course reform in washington and taking it back and making it the servant of the people and not are mastered doesnt just end there. It starts with the tax code. Our irs tax code is an abomination that is incomprehensible. 74,600 pages of in comprehensible lobbyist driven gobbledygook. It has to go. It is a tribute to the special interests and lobbyists ability to get special breaks for their clients at the expense of the American People. Do you know how many exemptions and credits total every year are exempt from taxation because of loopholes and other gimmicks . 3 trillion 1. 3 trillion. Get rid of all the special interest credits. Lower the rates on the American People and Small Business dramatically. Lower the corporate rate, lower the rate on manufacturing. We will have surpluses, we will grow the economy, and we will put those lobbyists and lawyers out of business. We will make the government our servant, as it should be. Six of the 10 wealthiest counties in America Today surround washington, d. C. What do they make . They are not the Financial Capital of the world like we are. It is not the entertainment and Media Capital like los angeles. They make those loophole credits , though special laws that take care of their fines to the tune of over 1 trillion per year, on our expense, and it has to stop. I would keep just a handful of credits. I would keep the child care credit. I would look into expanding it because raising a child is critical and we want our families to come together and be successful in doing that. I would keep the charitable charitable induction. I would make a change so that the Putin Foundation wouldnt quite qualify. Then your Charitable Foundation when your Charitable Foundation spends more on travel and food you are not going to qualify when we get through rewriting the irs code. No more living off of taxpayer subsidies. We not only have to shrink the size of the government, throw out the tax code and break the special interest stranglehold on so much of washington, we have to change the way washington works. I imagine most of you have had the chance to visit our nations capital. I remember i went in the eighth grade with my class. I was so inspired. I was young and ran up the washington monument. I saw the Lincoln Memorial and congress and i was so moved. Its like im on a foreign planet. They talk to each other instead of to us. They listen to each other instead of to us. They talk in a language that is coded and seemingly the force. We have to change the way washington operates. Today there are over 400 former members of the house and senate who are registered lobbyists in washington dc. You get elected from anywhere in any party. Play the game and you are set for life. You can make 10 times as much peddling special influence. I would propose a law, you surf one day in the house, one day in the senate. There is a lifetime ban of ever being able lobbyist in washington dc. You pass a law that you impose on the American People like obama care, any law you past that applies to the American People has to apply to every american in congress and their staff as well. No special rules for congress. We dont want to have career people in office throughout their lives. The concept was that citizens will take a time from their lives, devoted to public service, and go back to their community. We need term limits on the house and senate members. For six years the senate did not pass one budget. You dont pass a budget, you dont get paid. Do your job or suffer the consequences. Again people are saying you cant do it. It had been a 20 year unfettered egg experiment and government liberal democracy. We had the lowest credit raining Credit Rating. One of every man woman and child, think about that. Not dependent on Social Security or disability but welfare. People were saying how . Quite simply we had cut taxes by 143 billion. We can turn those 5 billion deficits into multibillion dollar surpluses. We have created over 700,000 private sector jobs. We had gone from the mosts the most dangerous states. We have reduced the dependency and those welfare rolls by over one Million People, replacing it with an opportunity. Thats what conservative policy does. We had an experiment in liberalism and it failed. We had a trial in conservatism and it succeeded. When i began i said there are two threats to our freedom. Two powers in washington who believe they are smarter and better than we are. When he introduced me he mentioned september 11. I will never forget that day or the lesson. We cannot believe that because radical islam is filed away, separated by a notion that we are safe here in america, think of what happened last week. Two radicalized islamist terrorists with ak47s were going to this event. If they had their way they were going to kill as many innocent americans as possible. For that one brave texas cop, it could have been another fort hood massacre. They were radicalized. Today you listen to some of the press and they say it was a provocative conference. We shouldnt do that. Month after month, week after week we have seen assaults on christianity in the name of art. Freedom of press, they are entitled to do it. Let me say this to the press, if it is ok to use art to criticize christianity the way it has been done year after year, it is ok to have a conference that criticizes islam in texas as well. And they deserve our protection and freedom. And think about what happens and how that came about. Two americans were radicalized through the internet. To either join isis were to engage islamic terror against their fellow americans. You cannot yell fire in a crowded feared that crowded theater. In 2015 we must shut down every radical islamist trying to recruit people for isis here, trying to radicalized. It is a crime, whether it is on the internet or in a prison, shut it down. There is no question it is constitutional. Robert jackson from upstate new york, the constitution is not a suicide pact. He does not require us to allow our enemies to inspire hatred and violence here. You have had a lot of people talk about radical islam. Im going to say bunch more on that as well. It is also if you are going after cancer, you just dont remove the tentacles, you have to destroy the head. Al qaeda on september 11. They had a virtually no social network capability. They had no westerners in their midst. And yet they carried out think of isis, controlling territory. Thousands of westerners. Planning and getting ready to attack here. We must kill them there. They have a chance to kill us here again. Still with the jordanians and the sunni armed them as well. Destroying those centers recruitment centers, social media centers, kill as many as possible. America is going to be safe. I know we have honored those who have been in the military earlier today. I have two sons. My older son came out of college. They trained and got back from afghanistan in september. Lying awake at home, hoping there is no phone call in the middle of the night. You are the best america produces. And sadly i also know when you do get the phone call of someone in your family who has lost his life defending our freedom, the pain and suffering that creates that never goes away. We cannot fear to engage an enemy. We must destroy them their parent did store them destroy them there. We have to stand with our allies. It is countries like egypt. When they throughout the muslim brotherhood, which obama and hillary embraced, that was destroying churches, they replaced them with a government that should stand with them as well. They will join us in this fight. We will be safe, we will take back washington. When people think of new york, they think i grew up i grew up in a state my parents were all immigrants who came here. One of them spoke irish. My father couldnt speak english. We worked on the farm. We learned the value of hard work. They taught us you may not have wealth or connections. You had faith in your train. You worked hard, and there is nothing that could prevent you from achieving your dream. From my mailman father and mother, we have a brother who was an asterisk physicist an astrophysicist. Our job today is to make american safe. And to make sure every person in america, every child born today, whether they are born in downtown baltimore or upstate new york has that same faith in the future of this great country, that they can believe that their dream through hard work, faith, family, and education can come true. Provide for our security and safety overseas and at home. I guarantee you we are still america. We still have the entrepreneurial expect the entrepreneurial spirit. We have the most patriotic people in the world stand together, and i guarantee you the best of america is ahead of us. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your belief in freedom. Tomorrow is mothers day. She could not accept the full college and scholarship when she got out of high school because she was the only one working. She spent her life earning her parents. Tomorrow is mothers day. There is no better job than being a great mother. Thank you, god bless you, we love you, happy mothers day, god bless america. Our next speaker is one of the rising leaders in the Republican Party. And one of the significant voices and conservatism in american politics. Bobby jindal Bobby Jindals administration has enacted a comprehensive reform in State Government to make it smaller and more efficient, all without raising taxes. Government jindal had comprehensive Ethics Reform and now has some of the toughest ethics laws in the nation. Governor jindal has the courage to call out radical islam for what it is. By saying the truth of the matter is even though the president admitted islam has a problem, and it is called radical islam. Thank you for that moral clarity. Jindal has been on the front lines of fighting common core. When it comes to the critically important issues of parents and communities, not washington bureaucrats, should be the ones to make the decisions of their families. Governor jindal has an impressive resume to say the least. He received his bachelors and Public Policy and mastered Political Science from oxford. He served in the Louisiana Department of health and hospitals. In 2004, government jindal was elected to congress, representing the Third District of the Third District of louisiana. First elected governor in 2007, under jindals administration in baton rouge, it has resulted in more than 91,000 jobs and more than 62 billion in private capital investment, further dropping the economic Success Story. More than 2 Million People are working. That is the highest number in history. Government jindal is credited with orchestrating the evacuation citizens in United States history. Successfully moving nearly 2 million civilians in 2008. As a devout catholic he cherishes the right and the institution of marriage as god designed it. Jindal stamms firm in his beliefs. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the government the governor of louisiana, lobby jindal. Bobby jindal. Isgovernor jindal i decided to talk about what i think is the greatest threat we face from the Obama Administration. I dont know about you but i worry about 18 trillion of debt. I worry about obama care between patients and their doctors. I worry about a president who seems intent on signing a deal that will allow iran to become a nuclear power. I worry about a president that is trying to force common core i worry about a president. I worry about a president today by day finds new ways to change our country. The greatest threat we face a lot can be undone by conservative in the white house. We can draw back the epa, we can get rid of the regulations strangling our economy. We can stand with israel again. The greatest danger is what he is doing the idea of america. What do i mean by that . If you listen to his policies you see what he is trying to do. Hes trying to redefine the American Dream. Hes tried hes trying to redefine it for one of independence. The more you listen to him trying to divide it by geography. He wants to make it more and more like i dont know about you but that is not the American Dream. When i see his policy he is trying to turn the American Dream into the european nightmare. I want to tell you why the american jew is so important to me that i want to talk to you about an external and internal threat. The reason this is so important to me is they have lived the American Dream. My dad is one of nine. It was the first and only one in the family to get past. We heard the stories every single day growing up. Im sure you have a dad like that. Here is the amazing thing. My parents got on a plane, travels halfway across the world. I want you to think about something, the first person to whoever got on the plane first person whoever got on a plane going to america there was no google. They couldnt search and see what people were like in baton rouge. They could come back and tell them what the temperature was like. This is what they knew. They never visited. My mom was pregnant with me and they left behind their parents, families, and friends. When they are coming to an idea as we are coming to a place. They are coming to an idea freedom of of freedom and opportunity. My mom goes to lsu. Our lives may have some other fans in the audience. University of South Carolina, i dont want to play favorites. My mom goes to school in lsu. Student housing, running out of money. He starts calling company after company after company for a job. Not on how many days or weeks. Not on how any people hung up on him. But finally he convinces a guy from a Railroad Company to hire him sight unseen. My dad hasnt even met his new boss yet. My dad says thats great. I dont have a car, i dont have a drivers license, you are going to have to pick me up on the way to work. Who tells their new boss that . It is like the top 10 things not to do. The guy was so taken by his enthusiasm he did exactly that. Six months later i was born at womans hospital, which you would call politely a preexisting condition when i was born. We have three children. Two of our children were born at that same hospital. The third child was born at home. I didnt come here to tell you the story, but since tomorrow is he was born at home. 36 hours of labor. Second child, 24 hours of labor. Third child, 34 minutes of labor. This was not on purpose. Now tomorrow is mothers day. You think your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, there is a reason god allows women in not men do have babies. Dumbest thing i ever heard was next week we were in church. The exact same thing happened to me. He said i have a kidney stone that is exactly the same thing. Unless it was a one pound kidney stones it is not the same thing. This would be our 18th year of marriage. It was that morning our baby was coming out. Theyre beautiful and their pink. There is a reason and her takes that they be pretty quickly. That is not how it happens in real life. If im honest it doesnt look like hes done. What im thinking is he looks like your side of the family. I like being married cycle my beautiful bride he looks beautiful. 10 fingers, 10 toes. The moment i gave my baby son it was our third child i fell in love with her all over again. She didnt worry about the pain or discomfort. You just knew you permit you just knew you are witnessing a miracle. When my dad was there with the doctor he went and heres the amazing thing. It took us hours to fill out the paperwork and we had good insurance. My dad went to the doctor, no contracts, no government work, no paperwork. My dad said, im going to send you a check every month until i paid you this bill in full. Then two men stood two men stood there, they shook hands and that was it. It was a simpler time. I asked my dad how is that work . If you skip a payment can they take the baby back . Do they repossess it . He said, you were such a bad little baby we made it we made sending you back an option. There are two things my dad would tell my brother and me every day. Mark twain says the older we get, the smarter our parents become. There is a lot of truth in that. As i get older i am turning more and more and my father. I say things he used to say to us and i hate it. He used to tell us, if your friends jump off a bridge which you jump off a bridge . I hated it when he said that, i say it to my kids. One thing he would tell me every day, im not leaving you a famous last name or inheritance. But i will leave you a great education. He said if you are willing to work hard, there is no limit on what you can do. You need to pray and give thanks to god that you need to be born that you are born in the greatest country in the world. What does it really mean to give thanks and be grateful for this great country . I think i understand better as i try to teach my own children. Two threats that threaten the ability of our children. The first is an external threat the third is an internal threat. We have to take a threat of radical islamic terrorism. For some reason we have a president who doesnt even like to use those words to describe the enemy that we face. The recent events in texas show us. I was thankful those two terrorists were sent there. Maybe there is a lesson in there. Maybe texas and louisiana, those arent the best places. In our states, we think of gun control. We think of the target you are aiming at. Back in january and gave a speech in london that the left got hysterical about. I said this i said it is called radical islam. Muslim leaders have a responsibility. We need our leaders to demand and say to Muslim Leaders and clerics across the world, they need to do two things. They first must announce these individual terrorists. It is not enough to condemn generic actions. By name they have to condemn these individuals and make clear these are not markers. They are going straight to hell. [applause] the second thing Muslim Leaders must also do this, that they tolerate and respect of those with different believes than their own. [applause] i will warn you, when you say things like that the left will call you racist, antimuslim. It is not race racist or antimuslim. These evil individuals. As we face this threat we have a president who likes to spend his time at the National Prayer breakfast warning us of the threat of the crusades. I have a deal. If he will do his job as commanderinchief and kill those radical and islamic terrorists and keep us safe, i will be more than happy to take responsibility. I will be on the look out for those medieval priests. If they make a come back. [applause] the second threat to the American Dream is an internal threat. This second threat is our liberties at home and the most important and most recent is the assault on religious liberty we see taking place across this entire country. [applause] i gave a speech over a year ago saying they assault was coming. It is here. You saw this first of all in the Obama Administrations assault on the green family. Remember the hobby lobby case . They didnt want to violate their own sincerely held religious believes paying for abortions for their employees. How many of you were happy the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the green family . [applause] my question is why was that a court ruling . Why wasnt that a 90 ruling . But it wasnt just the Obama Administration. We solve the assaults in indiana and arkansas for corporate america. Corporate america joined up with the radical left in those lawmakers, those leaders. I have a warning to corporate america. You are flying yourselves that wants to regulate you out of existence. You cant have economic liberty without religious liberty. They are two sides to the same coin. We are not the party of big government. We cannot become the party of big business. [applause] i will also save this to these corporations that have told me and louisiana they dont want us to pass our own bill protecting the rights of individuals and businesses that support traditional marriage. Dont even waste your breath trying to bully louisiana. We are going to come down on the side of the First Amendment. [applause] the third example you may have remembered, the duck dynasty thing. They wanted to cancel his tv show. You may have noticed the governor, i was one of the first to call him. [no audio] [no audio] those of us that our prolife need to have our beliefs changed. What does that even mean . Are we going to be sent to reeducation camps . My religious believes are not between me and Hillary Clinton. [applause] my religious believes are between me and im not changing them no matter how uncomfortable they make Hillary Clinton or anyone else on the left. [applause] there was a time when the left believed, the understood religious liberty is the foundation of freedom of speech. With our religious without religious liberty there are no other freedoms like freedom of the press. This isnt just about marriage. Unlike president obama and secretary clinton they are not evolving with the polls. I continue to believe in traditional marriage between a man and a woman. This debate is much bigger than that. It is bigger than marriage. This is about the power of the state to impose unchristian Business Owners, telling us we dont have a right to live our lives with our sincerely held leaves. You have the freedom of religious expression, to them is to go to church and say what you want inside church. That is not religious liberty. It is the ability to live our lives according to our faiths 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. [applause] we shouldnt have to choose between following our conscience , offering any businesses. I will tell you this. I will say it slowly and plainly and clearly so even the left can put in the media and the government can understand it. The United States of america did not create religious liberty. Redreligious liberty created the United States. [applause] i accepted christ 28 years ago as a teenager. Never did i think i would love to see the day where my own government would try to take away my religious liberty rights in this country. I want to close with his observation. I told my parents story of the American Dream. My concern that president obama is trying to redefine the American Dream into a european nightmare of dependence on the government. Our best days are still ahead of us. I believe that as our Founding Fathers got something important and they got it right. They knew the genius is not our government ndc. It is in the freedoms they enshrined. They needit is the genius of entrepreneurs, the genius of moms and dads who raise their kids all over this country. We must make sure we are not beat internally. One of the things that worries me is this president tries to divide us every chance he gets. [applause] one of the things we must be on guard against, stop calling ourselves we are not African Americans, asian americans. Indian americans. Im tired of the hyphenated americans. My parents love their heritage. My mom says if i want to raise my children as indians or indian americans, we would have stayed in india. She came here to be an american. If we stay united no one can beat us. That is this observation. It is optional we win in 2016 not just because we need a republican white house. We need a conservative who make big changes. We must win this election. We can win this election. We will beat Hillary Clinton and when this election. God bless yall. God bless the United States of america. [applause] moderator the leaders that have spoken today, the future looks bright. How about you . When we first talked about this event, i talked two people across the state of who they wanted to see. A lot mentioned dr. Ben carson. [applause] you all know about what dr. Carson did at the National Prayer breakfast. Im not going to go into that. He is not afraid to week the truth to power, and that is incredibly refreshing. He is an internationally renowned physician authored nurse surgical publications, has been awarded dozens of awards and written a book coauthored with his wife. Join me in welcoming dr. Ben carson. Dr. Carson thank you. Thank you. I am so happy to be here with you this afternoon in South Carolina. There are a lot of people with common sense. [applause] sometimes we dont find that. They said it was a roughandtumble place. They said it was a roughandtumble place but i lost i had a chance to see to find dentists here. Many people have asked me how is my mother doing . I appreciate the sentiment. After my announcement on monday i flew down to where she is. My wife and my three sons, and she is in a terminal stages of alzheimers. But so many of you have been praying for her. One lady said she had a group of 22 people praying for my mother. For the last three days she has been eating again. [applause] i just want to thank you. They do mean a lot. Speaking of my mother, she has the greatest influence other than jesus christ on my life. She refused to be a victim. She has every reason to be a victim. Born in a large family in rural tennessee, shifted from home to home. Never feeling like she was in any place. Trying to cobble together any education she could. Gaining as much as a third grade education. Moving to detroit. Years later discovering he was a bigamist. Having limited education working so hard to support myself and my brother. The interesting thing about her she absolutely refused to feel sorry for herself. That was a good thing. She never felt sorry for us either. [laughter] anything that would evoke sympathy she was the baltimore mom you saw on television. [applause] [laughter] except that i would have never been out there in the first place. I would have known what was coming. It does say a lot about the concept of the family. I think the family is such an Important Pillar of strength for this country. It has been under attack for the last few decades. First attacking fathers in the role of father so much on television saying they dont need a father, and the Government Programs that give money to women who have babies out of wedlock, and take the money away if she gets married. These kinds of things are antifamily. One of the things we have to do, get the people who actually create them to understand the programs that let people out of poverty, and the program that maintains people in a state of dependency. [applause] some people criticize me and say you want to get rid of the safety net programs. Now. No. What i do want to do is help us to create an environment where you dont need all the safety net programs. [applause] this country is an amazing country. Think about this. We declared our independence in 1776. In 100 years we were the number one economic power in the world. Nobody else could do anything like that. Hundreds and thousands of years before that, people were doing things the same. America is an exceptional country. No other country like it. Have we made mistakes . Of course we have. Have we learned from them . Of course we have. We as americans have got to recognize that our strength lies and we have to stop listening to purveyors of division trying to make us believe that we hate each other. That there is a war on women. There is no war on women. That is ridiculous. They are really trying to stoke up this racial stuff, and all of our cities. We are going to have to get beyond that. Why dont you talk about race . When i am operating on a head, the skin doesnt make them who they are. It is the brain who makes them who they are. We have to start thinking at a much deeper level, not just looking superficially. Anybody can do that. An animal can do that. We have to be able to analyze things at a deeper level. The religious wars they are stoking up, i believe we are all entitled to have whatever faith we want to have. Our constitution aaron and teases of freedom of religion. Not freedom from religion. Atheists also wont tell you they have a religion, but they obviously have a religion. They obviously believe in things that they cant prove. They have faith. I find it interesting when they say youre a scientist, how could you possibly believe in god. That is ridiculous. I was having an argument in hollywood [laughter] with a famous atheist. He thought anybody who believed in god was a total idiot. That the end of the conversation i said look, i believe i came from god. You believe you came from a monkey. I tend to agree with you. [applause] [laughter] but the fact of the matter is, what we do need to make sure that we never do in this country , is force our beliefs upon someone else. That needs to go in both directions. The left doesnt get to force their beliefs on anybody else. With the gay marriage thing, i get asked that question so much. In the press conference now that was a predominant question. Why is it so hard for people to understand that . Marriage in my opinion is between one man and one woman. That is relatively simple. [applause] by the same token, our constitution guarantees the right of every single citizen and we protect the rights of every single citizen. However. Everybody is equal. Nobody is more equal. Nobody gets special rights to change the rules for everybody else. That is what we must guarantee in our society if we are to remain a free society. As soon as we start picking special groups and saying you get to change everybody else where does that end . There is no end to that. That is why our constitution was written the way that it was. We must be courageous. It is going to be up to us. We the people have got to learn for ourselves. We cannot let other people tell us what we are supposed to think. [applause] if we listen to the pond ands, the pundits and the political groups always steer you in a certain direction. Why would we continue to go in that direction . Is this something that needs me and my children, and my grandchildren, and freedom is going to preserve our constitution . Is this something that is going in a different direction. We are the ones to make that decision. No one can take that for us unless we fall down on the job. I do believe we have the ability to analyze these things deeply. We look at the National Debt that we are facing. Over 18 trillion. That is ridiculous. It is beyond ridiculous. There is so much money. If you try to pay it back at a rate of 10 Million Dollars a day, it would take you 5000 years. We are putting that on the back of our children and grandchildren. It is absurd. It puts a tremendous pressure on an economy once the gdp reaches 90 . We are with hundred 3 . The gdp will be smaller than the National Debt. It is the first time that has happened since we were in the middle of a war. There is no in and insights. We have leaders who think that they have scored a victory if the debt doesnt go up as much as it did the last quarter. That is the wrong criteria. We need to be talking about that. We need a balanced Budget Amendment. We need to be talking about term limits. [applause] not only for people in congress, but term limits for judges. [applause] when we put our constitution in place, the average age was 47 years old. It doesnt matter if we give them a lifetime. Now it matters quite a bit. We obviously need to adjust with the times. You look at Social Security. The average age of death was 63 years old. Now it is 80 years old. If we dont adjust things we wind up behind the eight ball. Getting back to the economy, so many of our problems are linked to a poor economy. This has been a long recovery and we are still in a recovery process. Some people will tell you, like this administration, that things are great. Unemployment is down to 5. 4 . We have all these wonderful jobs. One of the reasons that a lot of people are frustrated and arriving rioting, when they open their eyes and look around they dont see it. There has been plenty of change but there is little hope. That is what is killing us. [applause] in concentrating on that economy, the most powerful economic engine the world has known, how do we get it moving again . We have the highest Corporate Tax rates in the developed world. That is the easy one. Here is the cool thing. There is 2 trillion of our money sitting overseas that corporations are not bringing back here because they dont want to face that taxation. What if we just said we are giving you a tax holiday for six months and let the money come back into our country . That would be a wise move. That would be a major stimulus. It wouldnt cost taxpayers a single dime. The other thing we need to do is get rid of the unnecessary regulations. I stress the word unnecessary. If men were angels, no government would be needed. Men are not angels, nor are women. We do need some rules and regulations there. We need a reasonable tax structure. Our tax code is 80,000 pages long. Nobody can comply with all of that. We need to scrap the whole thing and start over again. [applause] with something that makes sense something that is proportional, and you make 10 billion, you pay 1 billion. Same proportion. You get the same rights. Same[applause] some people say, but it is not fair because the person who makes 10, he cant afford to pay any money. He cant pay a dollar. I had not opportunity to experience every economic level in this country, from the bottom to the top. A lot of people on the bottom also have pride. [applause] they dont want somebody patting them on the head and saying you cant carry your part of the load. They want to be a part of the american system also. What we need to be concentrating on is finding ways to provide ladders so they can climb out of that situation and realize the American Dream. That is the key for everybody. [applause] lastly, we cant he ashamed of who we are. As we give away parts of who we are for the sake of political correctness, we wont have a vision. We wont even know who we are. We wont know what we stand for. With the Carson Scholars Fund which is a National Scholars program my wife and i started and for those who think that doctors dont know how to do anything, i should say nine out of 10 nonprofits fail. Hours not only didnt fail, it is active in 50 states and the District Of Columbia has one national awards. Many of them being awards only given to one organization in the country for outstanding performance. [applause] our slogan the t is for talent honesty, insight, k for knowledge. Be for books, and the g is for god. Lawyers say you cant put it in a Public School because the g stands for god. [applause] we had a vigorous argument. I suggested maybe we can resolve it at the level of the Supreme Court, which seemed bold and reckless. I knew the next week i was going to the Supreme Court to receive the jefferson award. Sandra day oconnor say they were with us. There was no violation. People who say silly stuff like that, what do they know about our country . Our founding document talks about certain unalienable rights given to us by our creator, the pledge of allegiance says we are one nation under god. Many courtrooms say in god we trust. If it is in our founding documents, it is in our pledge it is in our court, it is on our money. We are not supposed to talk about it. What and the world is that . [applause] does not explain a lot about what is going on in our nation today . We need to make it clear it is ok to live by godly principles of loving your fellow man, of caring about your neighbor, of developing your godgiven talents that you become valuable to the people around you who have had values and principles. If we do that, not only will we remain a pinnacle nation, we will truly have one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. [applause] moderator sometimes it does take a brain surgeon. Hes an amazing guy. What a great day it has been. We have come down to our last speaker. Im so excited to bring her to you. It has been a long day. Our next speaker has been crisscrossing the country and getting peoples attention. Her speech of the iowa Freedom Summit was extraordinary. Carly fiorinoa has had conservative principles since she was a little girl. Her father taught her the principles enshrined in the constitution were worth guarding for. She would take those principles and apply them to the free marketplace, becoming the first woman in history to lead a fortune 50 company. One of the 10 most powerful women in the world according to forbes magazine. Carly has been one of the most successful had one of the most successful business careers of any woman in American History proving it conservative leadership and principles were the key to success in business as well as in government. She has been a champion of american competitiveness arguing that if america is to be the leading economy in the 21st century, we must build in a way that outcompete the rest of the world. She is a political activist. Supporting conservative causes for many years. In 2010, she showed true character by challenging ultraliberal Barbara Boxer. In California Senate election. She brought conservative principles to one of americas most liberal states. Limited government, lower taxes and a little thing called freedom. Nothing Barbara Boxer knows much about by the way. She stood tall for the lives of the unborn and traditional marriage. I can tell you, in california, that is called a profile in courage. At a time when american politics is sorely lacking in leaders with real world experience leaders who know what it takes to be successful in the private sector, our next speaker is a much needed breath of fresh air. Let me be clear, Hillary Clinton is not the only woman on the National Stage right now. Ladies and gentlemen, Carly Fiorina . [applause] Carly Fiorina thank you. Thank you for hanging in all day. Im so impressed with your stamina. Thank you for that warm welcome. Like Hillary Clinton, i am running for the president of the United States. [applause] unlike killer a clinton, i am not afraid to answer questions unlike Hillary Clinton i am not afraid to answer questions about my accomplishments. Hillary clinton has taken exactly 7 on the record questions since april 12. I have answered over 200 on the record questions since monday of this week. [applause] i have to admit that one of those questions was did i consider a hot dog a sandwich . We will subtract that. Is it a sandwich . Yes, no . The New York Times has a new regular feature. Questions we would have asked Hillary Clinton if we had only had the opportunity. I bet you have some questions. Like for example, why in your first Public Statement after the terrorist attacks that killed four brave americans in benghazi, why did you talk to was about the need for religious tolerance. Why do you lecture us on the need to emphasize with our enemies while christians are being beheaded and crucified in the middle east . [applause] did you really see no conflict of interest while your Family Foundation took millions of dollars in donations and your husband took very large speaker fees from foreign governments who had business before you while you served as secretary as of state. Tell us why we should be reassured that you had to secret Service Agents guarding the server in the basement. Are you not worried about thewe are worried about the server being hacked. Perhaps we should have some in the white house that understand something about technology. [applause] recently while i was reading my daily scripture, i came across matthew 1234. For the mouth speaks with the heart is full of. Today i want to speak to you about what fills my heart. When i was a little girl one morning and sunday school my mother said to me what you are is gods gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to god. I started my career as a secretary in a nine person real estate firm. I would become the chief executive officer of the Largest Technology company in the world and run for president of the United States. That is only possible in the United States of america. It is possible here and only here. Our founders knew what my mother told me. Our founders built a nation on the visionary and radical idea that every life has potential that everyone has the right, the right to fulfill their potential. That is what our founders meant when they talked about life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That right to fulfill our potential came from god. It should not be taken away by man or government. [applause] i have seen people in all kinds of circumstances, in desperate and destitute circumstances, yet it is true that every person, every person has godgiven gifts, every persons life is given godgiven potential. Whatever their circumstances everyone does have the capacity to live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. We now that dignity comes from work and that purpose comes from family, and meaning comes from faith in our lives. [applause] i have been blessed in my life but i have also been through hard times. I managed hewlettpackard through the. Com bust. The Worst Technology recession in 25 years. Over six years we transform that company from one falling behind 21 charging ahead even as so many of the companies against which we competed disappeared off the stage altogether. At the end of that time i was fired in a board room. Leaders challenge the status quo. There are people who fight to preserve the status quo. Those who fight to preserve the status quo become the enemies of leaders who fight to change the system. [applause] when i battled cancer six years ago, i relied on the strength of my family and the power of my faith. When a short time the tail end of that, we lost our younger daughter to the demons of addiction, my husband and i relied on our personal relationship with jesus christ to save us from a desperate sadness. I met frank who was here today. I met him 34 years ago. When we married 30 years ago next sunday as a matter of fact, thank you so much. [applause] when we married 30 years ago i learned that his mother had been told to abort him. She was a woman of great faith. Great courage. She chose to bring her child into the world. She spent a year in the hospital following his birth. Frank was the joy of her life and he has been the rock of mine. I think often about how different my life would be had she made a different choice. [applause] as you know, i ran for the senate against Barbara Boxer in california in 2010. I ran as a prolife conservative. You dont do that unless you really mean it. [applause] but those of us who believe in the sanctity of life know that science is proving us right every day. We now know the dna in a zygote is the same dna as the day you die. Life is a continuum. A gift from god , and every life is filled with potential. [applause] i dont about you, but i am tired of being called extreme on this issue. The platform of the Democrat Party is a life is not a life until it leaves the hospital. That is extreme. [applause] i must tell you as i have traveled across this country over the last several years, i sensed a deep disquiet. It is not political. It is not partisan. People are disquieted because they fear we are losing something. They think we are missing something. They fear we are losing that sense of limitless possibility that has always defined this nation. We always knew if something was worth doing the nation would do it. Even better if it was hard to do. We would figure out how to do it. Our lives were filled with possibilities that came with our godgiven gifts and we trusted that our children and grandchildrens lives would be filled with greater possibilities. People no longer feel this sense of possibility. When we lose, a sense of limitless possibility that has always defined this nation, we lose the core of who we are. Theres a reason my people feel as though we are losing possibility. I see too many lives tangled in webs of dependence. I see too many familyowned businesses farms, getting crushed for the first time in u. S. History. We are destroying more businesses than we are creating. The government has become so big, so powerful, so costly, so corrupt, so crushing in its weight and its ineptitude that only the big, the powerful, the wealthy, and the wellconnected can survive. [applause] if you doubt that, think about the result of dodd frank, a piece of legislation passed to protect us. The consequences, 10 wall st banks have become 5 wall st in banks too big to fail. An industry after industry, the crushing weight of government complexity ensures that only the big, the powerful, the wealthy and the wellconnected can deal with it. This is called crony capitalism. The answer to crony capitalism is not more government, it is Less Government. [applause] we truly have reached a point in this country where the potential of the people of america is being crushed by the weight of the government of america. [applause] that is why this is a Pivotal Point in our nations history. That is why im running for the presidency of the United States. [applause] people think that we are losing the sense of limitless possibility and they are rights, and what they think we are missing is leadership. It is worth talking a moment about what leadership is. It is different than management. Managers are people who do the best they can in the existing system. Managers dont challenge the status quo. Managers tinker within the status quo. A leaders job is to challenge the status quo. A leaders job is to respect what has been broken simply because it has been that way for a long time. When i was a secretary all those many years ago, i thought a leader was somebody with a big office. If you had perks and a title you must be a leader. I got older and wiser and i learned there were people with big titles who didnt lead a day in their lives. We have one of those in the oval office right now, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] leadership is not about position. It is not about power. It is not about perks. Leadership is about changing the order of things for the better and the highest calling of leadership is to unlock potential and others. That is the leadership we now need in washington dc. [applause] it is important to remember that ours was intended to be a citizen government. That is what by, for, and of the people means. When did we get used to the idea that only a professional Political Class could run for office . Those protectors of the status quo, they have left the citizens of this nation down. [applause] there is no greater example of this than the Veterans Administration. How long was me we leave this stain on our nations on a that we cannot serve our veterans the way we should serve them. [applause] until friday of last week i served as chairman of opportunity international. We have lent 8 billion, 150 at a time. I can deliver to a woman in the slums of new delhi a loan over a cell phone. You are going to be months filling out paperwork while some bureaucrat checks your paperwork while another bureaucrat decided you get an appointment or not. Theyve had to have the foundation of the building reinforced because of the weight of the paperwork on the bureaucrats desk. We cannot settle for this anymore. [applause] we need leadership here at home to unlock the potential of this great nation and to restore possibilities to every person regardless. We need leadership around the world. [applause] thei wasnt doing photo ops. I was having private meetings with world leaders, talking about serious issues like business or charity, and the issues that matter to them. I have served for the Central Intelligence agency advising the secretary of defense, secretary of state secretary of Homeland Security. I have sent across a table from Vladimir Putin, just he and die, and having met this man, it is clear that a reset button will not for his ambitions. [applause] there are some things we could do. There are some things we could do that would cause him to say i am standing now seeing an america of strength. We should rebuild the Missile Defense program. We should conduct military exercises in the balkans and we should on the ukrainians. [applause] every single one of the things i just mentioned is within this countrys control. President obama prisons a false choice. He says if you dont agree with me the only option is to march off to war. That is untrue. I have been asked what i would do in the first hundred days in the oval office. There is much work we would have to do in that first hundred days. Two things i would do on the first day, i would make to phone calls. The first to bibi netanyahu. [applause] the Prime Minister of israel. I would make that phone call not just because i have known him for a long time. I would make that phone call because i want the world to know that america stands by our allies, and i want him to tell the world that his was the first phone call i made. [applause] the second phone call i would make would be to the Supreme Leader of the ron. He would get the message loud and clear. The message would be this. Whatever the circumstances were the circumstances have changed now. Until and unless you submit to unfettered inspections of every single Nuclear Facility in your country we will exact and in the most crushing sanctions we can. We have a lot to do with how easy or how hard it is to move money around the Global Financial system and i would ensure that it would hit hard for iran. I would keep the pressure up until he engages in inspections. [applause] by the way, there is much we can do to help our allies fight against this terrible, evil enemy called isis. We can arm the kurds as they have been asking us to do for years. We can share intelligence with the egyptians. We can give the jordanians bomb material to fight this fight for us. Every single one of those things are within our control and we have done none of them. [applause] several weeks ago, i was asked by a reporter whether a womans hormones prevented her from serving in the oval office. [laughter] ladies, this is a test. Can any of you think of a single example in which a mans judgment was clouded by his hormones . [laughter] any at all . [applause] even in the oval office . [laughter] [applause] Hillary Clinton must not be president of the United States but not because she is a woman. She must not be the president of the United States because she is not trustworthy, and she does not have a track record of accomplishment. [applause] when i was the ceo of hewlettpackard, a publicly traded company, if i made a misstatement of material facts about my record, or about our results, i could be sued and charged. If i told one person something that we intended to do in the future, and then told another person Something Different but what i intended to do in the future, i could be sued and charged. Imagine if we had this level this standard of accountability among the professional Political Class of washington, d. C. [applause] the American People will have a choice. Are we going to demand trust transparency, and more than words from our political leaders . Do we want someone in the white house who is not afraid to be held accountable, who is not afraid to challenge the status quo . Have we had enough of a ruling Political Class that doles out favors to the wealthy wellconnected, and the few . We have everything we need to solve every problem. All of our wounds are selfinflicted. We have the potential of the American People. All we need now is leadership and citizenship. If you want to help me, please go on to carlyforpresident. Com and sign up on. [applause] ms. Fiorina we rightly celebrate our Founding Fathers because they were men of vision and courage, but do of the most powerful people of this great nation are women. Lady liberty and lady justice. Lady liberty stands tall and strong. She is clarified clear eyed, resolute, she faces outward into the world as america must. She holds her torch high because she knows she is a beacon of hope in a troubled world. Lady justice, she holds a sword in one hand because she is a fighter, she is a warrior for the values and principles that have made this nation great. She holds a scale in the other hand and with that scale, she reminds us that all of us are equal in the eyes of god and therefore all of us must be equal in the eyes of the law and government, powerful and powerless alike. [applause] ms. Fiorina this must be always a nation where it truly doesnt matter who you are what you look like or what your circumstances are. Here, in this country, every americans life should be filled with possibilities with liberty and justice for all and so let us rise together to restore the promise of this great nation. Let us rise together to meet our challenges. Let us ensure that this is the greatest century for this, the greatest nation the world is ever known. Thank you so much. [applause] what a day. You want us to find any more speakers for you . [applause] i brought my son out here. He has a few things he wants to say to you so we will keep this thing going. We have gotten a pretty good taste. Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an absolute leisure to host the South Carolina Freedom Summit with my good friend congressman jeff duncan in the great state of South Carolina. Greenville has been so good to us. The peace center has been so good to us. I want to thank again our vendors, staff, volunteers, all of the volunteers helped us today. The staff for making this a great event. I want to send a thank you to the Greenville Police department. They helped us stay safe today. They did an amazing job. [applause] our sponsors, mr. Elmore, the Tea Party Patriots for lunch. The media sponsor. The nra, american legacy pact, timama direct, and thank you all for coming. I want to thank the Greenville News for providing the lifestream and cspan for their Outstanding Television coverage. Finally, i want to thank all the fantastic conservative leaders who made this an unforgettable event. I do want to say one thing. Meredith wall. Meredith is here somewhere and be back. How many of you contacted meredith . She made this entire thing happen pretty much all by her lonesome. She had a lot of help but meredith really is the person responsible, that may just and i look like we knew what we were doing. I want to thank meredith. Thank you so much. [applause] is she there . She is back there still working. Thank you very much and i want to say again thank you to jeff duncan for allowing me to help him with this. It has been a wonderful day, a wonderful event. I hope you all have enjoyed it as much as we did and with that jeff duncan. Just thank you. [applause] jeff there are a lot of folks to thank. I want to thank our sponsors. You heard they talk about them but no one paid a down to convert today. We have incredible sponsors. I cannot thank them enough. They made this happen. [applause] jeff all of the people in the orange sure is volunteer their time. Thank them. They helped you find your seat directed you where to go. This is a great venue. Thanks to the peace center for working with us. My staff i cannot thank you enough. As i am trying to be a congressman, they helped put this together. The Police Officers and the paramedics at adventure all day to make sure we are safe, to make sure if something happened, youre able to be protected. Thank you. Thank you to all lawenforcement officers in general. [applause] jeff Citizens United has been absolutely dead list. We set a new bar in South Carolina for Citizens United and future Freedom Summits. Thank you for doing that. [applause]. Jeff the last thank you is to you. Thank you to coming. I am proud to be an american. I am proud of the leadership i have seen. Im optimistic about the future, how about you . [applause] jeff we have a Bright Future in this country. Thank you for being here. God bless you and may god bless america. We are live in greenville, South Carolina. All day long here on cspan, this summit of a number of potential republican candidates and a couple candidates. About an hour ago, being put out by politico. A headline from columbia, South Carolina saying Lindsey Graham will make his bid for the presidency official with an announcement in South Carolina at june 1. Politico reports the state senior senator has told gop donors that dude one is the likely date for his announcement june 1 is the likely date for his announcement. Senator graham has been open this year about his president ial aspirations, telling those attending the gop silver elephant dinner last weekend to get ready. Get ready for a debate he said that it is long overdue within the party. He said get ready for a voice that understands you cannot save america without somebody willing to sacrifice and die for america. Lindsey graham about an hour ago. Lets get to some of your calls. We will start in hendersonville North Carolina. Caller i have been so impressed with these candidates this afternoon. I think whichever republican wins and as far as im concerned, any one them surely would qualify, that he or she ought to get into the white house and name all of the rest of the candidates their candidate members. I think this is fantastic and i am so proud that we have a list of good, honest people who are willing to help in this effort to change america back to what it should be and i appreciate so much cspan doing this today. It has been a blessing to see and it is inspiring to listen to these people. Host thank you for your call. We go to massachusetts with james. Caller thank you for taking my call. Once again i see the thumping on the bible and talking about their faith and god and religion. I am a christian. I just have a question for these people have they ever read the things jesus said . It doesnt sound like from the policies that have just passed the republican budget that they understand anything about jesus or what he taught and how to deal with the poor and elderly and fatherless children. That is true religion, how you treat the poor. Host we moved to our independent line. What do you think . Caller i watched a great deal of it. I think it was very uplifting. I want to make an important comment. The two that stood out for me were ted cruz and Rick Santorum and i will tell you why. Those two men seem to stress the social issues. One man from the balcony yelled down through conservative and that is very important because a lot of people claim to be conservative when they are not. When you are a true conservative, you believe in traditional marriage, no question asked. As far as abortion goes, you may have some exceptions such as rape, and says life of the mother. You believe in religious freedom and in terms of ilLegal Immigration, which is really my issue, you believe in rule of law securing that border and if you came here illegally, you go home and you either come back the right way or you dont come at all. Host you said immigration is your issue. Who is your candidate . Caller ted cruz and Rick Santorum. I believe these two men would be strong on ilLegal Immigration. I think they were excellent. He other candidates are very good also and i agree that if any of these others do lose, they would certainly make a great members of a cabinet or john bolton would be great as the secretary of state. Host thank you. We will go to kentucky. You are on our line for republicans. Caller i agree with the very first lady. Everything. She was spot on. I love everyone of these candidates. I still havent made up my mind. I only got to hear to speeches today and that was ben carson and Carly Fiorina. I think she was dynamic. She beats hillary to pieces. Ben carson, i know he is a true christian man and what he says is the truth. I love them all and i think they all should be in the cabinet with whoever wins. Host thank you. We mentioned Lindsey Graham making some news today although not at this summit. Others at the Freedom Summits today, senator rand paul, jeb bush. He was speaking at lynchburg virginia. We will show you that tonight. Chris christie and my have been Mike Huckabee or not there today. Lets go to for democrats. Karen. Caller i thought it was kind of a circus. They were there spewing their venom about people. I do not agree with joann at all. Those people are not good christians because i have to agree with the two gentleman from massachusetts. They really need to truly read the bible. And i just dont understand the republican mindset and it sounded like the first color may have been a senior citizen. I guess she should not take any of the benefits that are given to her because the republicans seem to not like medicare, they dont like Social Security. They dont like to help for people. There are poor people who actually work jobs that need to get food stamps. Host we appreciate the call. We will go to lakewood washington with mike, another democrat. Caller i watched a little bit of it and it did seem like it was the same thing after the other. They are still blaming obama for everything. I was really surprised about what they wanted to say that we need we are doing fine in that area. The lack of diversity in the crowd i mean, no republican is going to get voted in on just the white vote alone. I just really it is the same thing from four years ago they are spewing out. I dont see enough votes there are not a net people to believe what theyre trying to sell that will put a republican in the office. Host a lot of your reactions here today. Freedom summit from greenville South Carolina. Quite a lineup of speakers. We have time for a few more calls. Was go to marlene. Caller we are a suburb of orlando, florida. I loved the entire summit. I am happy that ted cruz is sticking with his ideas of flat tax and abolishing that irs. I also really and truly enjoyed the last lady speaker. I thought she was eloquent in her talk and had some good ideas and can give hillary a run for her money. I thoroughly enjoyed donald trump and i hope he seriously considers making a bid. He had some great ideas and the man has a proven record in business. Maybe he could turn our country back around and make us financially rich again. Host do you think donald trump would win in a general election contest with a democratic nominee . Would donald trump beat hillary question of hillary . Caller capsule away. Absolutely. Host charlie, what did you watch . What do you think . Caller i am enjoying these people speak on the phone. I believe these conservative republicans have a social darwinian mindset. They have nothing to do with america and they are not representing the American People. I cannot say too much for the conservative democrats either. The American People need something better. They eventually will get something better. Host we will leave it there for now. Here is your chance to weigh in on cspan here on the air. Anytime you want. We like to from you and we will show you all of the speakers from todays Freedom Summit. Theyre on our website and we will reair portions here on tv tonight 20 minutes after 8 00 eastern. We will take you back to some of the speakers from earlier this morning before live coverage began with a South Carolina senator. The library much. Thank you very much. It is a true honor for me to introduce our next speaker. It is not every day you get to introduce a Hometown Hero and a hero of the conservative movement. Jim is one of americas foremost conservative leaders heading up the preeminent policy institution in our nations capital. He served as a distinguished member of congress 14 years, leading all the causes of limited government, lower taxes, and Economic Freedom in a principled and thoughtful manner. He has earned a reputation as someone willing to take on the republican establishment and the failed washington status quo. I want to personally recognize and think him for that. Thanks to his efforts, the group of conservative change agents in congress is growing. He forged the coalition now populated by the likes of ted cruz, rand paul, and mike leigh. Working tirelessly and fearlessly to bring battle ready conservatives to the house of congress. He kept his promise to serve only three terms in the house. In 2004, he was elected to the United States senate where he gained the nations respect as a superb, conservative legislator and advocate. Senator demint worked hard by stopping the misguided 2007 amnesty bill. Since 2013, yes with the prestigious heritage foundation, transforming it into a major force for liberty in america. Under his leadership, and it has been nothing forefront of innovative policy proposals and pressuring republicans in congress to fight for the conservative principles they promised to represent. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming my good friend and greenvilles very own jim demint. [Country Music] [applause] sen. Demint welcome to my hometown. How many of you are in greenville for the first time . I see a few hands out there. How many are from greenville . I tell you, it is great to be home with you. Debbie is here with me today. To be and the upstate, which is the stronghold of conservative republicanism in the country it really is. [applause] sen. Demint we have some of the best representatives in congress of anywhere in the country. You have heard from jeff duncan. [applause] you know trey gowdy. [applause] sen. Demint they used to say trey had jim demints seat. Things change. I want to tell you why we have great representatives. It is because republicans and the upstate of South Carolina are real republicans. They organize, they are saw bully conservative they are solidly conservative, and they help elect good people and they support them when they do the right thing and our guys hear from them when they do the wrong thing. You keep them accountable. Lets make them see the light and help them feel the heat when they need to. That is why we had great representatives and that is what we trying to do all over the country, encourage conservatives to come together and help elect the right people at more important, let the right ideas. That is what we are about at the heritage foundation. That is a lot of what i want to talk about. First i want to talk about being on this spot. I can see most of my life if i step out front. I was born about a halfmile up the street at agreeable general. Two month later, my wife debbie was born in the same place. We werent married at the time. [laughter] sen. Demint before i was born my grandfather ran a gas station. I saw some pictures from the Greenville News of the day the other day. I remember growing up as a kid and climbing on top of boxes of motor oil and climbing down through tunnels of tires. As i got older i started going across the street to the Greenville News. I had to pay for my papers every month. A little while later, right up the street, at the hotel, debbie and i were growing up and that is where all of the high School Parties and proms were. Later when we moved back, one of my First Business locations was right across the bridge, this old building that overlooks the waterfall. After we got married admit back and moved back, downtown was dead. Merchants had moved out and no one would come down to shop anymore. A lot of of people got together and i was privileged to be part of that, working with a lot of volunteer groups and entrepreneurs, businesses elected leaders. Over time, through risktaking and vision and a lot of hard work, with no help from washington, i dont think any help from columbia, the city you see now was built from the ground up. When you walk around now, it is so exciting not just to see what is here but to realize this is how america works. We are built from the ground up by the people and by businesses and risktakers, investors. That is what is happening all over the country. We are frustrated with what is going on in washington because they keep john to do it the other way. They keep trying to build america from the top down. You cannot build things like this. You end up with detroit and baltimore. When you have those kind of policies that try to control everything and instead of trying to create an opportunity or a situation where there is opportunity for all. Now in greenville, from the High School Student with a parttime job to a high paid whitecollar job, you have opportunity for everyone because of what was built from the ground up. That is the philosophy we need to have. That is the velocity we need to have. We are frustrated with washington. Leaders from states all over the country coming to share best practices, what works, how they have done it, and how others can figure out how to do it. One of our speakers was the governor from maine. When i was in the senate, the maine sisters said they had to vote for big Government Programs because they were from a liberal state. This republican governor has pushed welfare reform and reduced taxes. Two years ago when he vetoed medicare extension under obamacare, they said he was toast in the election last november. But he got more votes than any governor ever has in maine before. What does that tell you . [applause] jim demint people want the courage of your convictions. They want leadership. They want people to tell them the truth and try to do that. Now he is busy pushing his legislature to eliminate the state income tax. You can do it in maine. We have leaders from illinois. Last year, the state of illinois a lot of democrats elected a republican governor who was promising to take on the Public Employees unions. It was so inspiring that even the dead people in chicago voted republican. [laughter] [applause] jim demint it just takes some leadership, folks. There were people there from oklahoma and our neighbor, georgia, pushing education savings accounts to give children more opportunities because they had seen what worked in arizona. That is something i cope hope we can do here. Hopefully, we can push our legislature to do things like that. In oklahoma, they were so frustrated the state legislator had not passed the right to work that counties are now voting for right to work in their own county. All over the country please see our ideas working and winning the hearts and minds of the American People. Those folks who say you have got to moderate and go to the center and be lukewarm to win elections just need to look at the new governor of maryland, to look at what is happening in maine, and look all over the country. Our ideas work and inspire people. We need to keep talking about them. As we look at the election, and i know we are not supposed to talk about candidates today, instead of getting behind the first one it blows in your ear it is not about giving a good speech. It is about the power of the ideas and ability to inspire people. We have got to make sure our candidates understand not only what the solutions are, but what are the threats . We know around the world and here at home we have the threat of islamic terrorism. In washington, it is simple. We have to fight the left every day. Every day, they are trying to take control of the new part of the American Economy and society. Theyre threatening our religious liberties. You need people with courage and conviction. You cannot compromise with these people. The only compromise keeps moving you further to the left. We have got to fight them and when. Win. [applause] jim demint but there is another threat we dont talk about enough. It is the washington establishment. It is the entrenched politicians and bureaucrats and the liberal media. It is the big unions, the government unions, big corporations, the lobbyists on k street. They profit from the status quo. Despite what big corporations tell you, they are not there to create a free market economy. They are there for the bigs, for big business. Unfortunately, too many of our republican colleagues fall into that. As you hear People Campaign for congress, for senate, find out how they feel about the Exportimport Bank in South Carolina. It is a big crony boondoggle with so much fraud and corruption. The we have boeing in South Carolina. It is hard to say that we dont want it. When they get in iowa, do they want subsidies for ethanol. What you have in washington now instead of working on what is good for america, opportunity for all and favoritism for none, what you have is cronyism. So much of what you see happen, when you scratch your head and ask why republicans did that, you can probably trace it back to cronyism in washington. The government playing winners and losers. It is the big banks that wrote dodd frank. It is the Big Insurance Companies that wrote obamacare. None of this is for the little guy in whether it is obama or hillary, if they stand up and say we are for the little guy can tell them you are not. Big government is not for the little guy. It does not help us build this country from the ground up. We need folks in Public Office, particularly in washington and the white house, that understand this old idea of federalism which simply means government closer to home at the state and local level, is more accountable and more effective. There is no reason we should be trying to run education and health care and transportation and control our Energy Markets and Banking System from washington, d. C. [applause] jim demint i want to challenge you as you listen to these guys. I have to say i am kind of proud the first three republicans who announced for office were those i supported through the Senate Conservatives fund but were all opposed by the Republican Party in washington. [applause] jim demint but it had very little to do with me. What it should show all of you is it the people in this country come around together come together around the right ideas they can send the people they want to washington. No matter what the establishment says or any Political Party says. The power is in our hands to change things. We need people who not only understand the right ideas, but a big heart of that is moving to out of washington. The biggest missing ingredient in washington now is courage people willing to take the heat and pressure that comes inside of washington. We are trying to help with that because the noise inside washington encouraging our representatives to do the wrong thing is much louder than the noise that comes from the people. The reason we have good representatives here is because the folks who represent us hear from us back home. You are organized. You have the right ideas. We support folks. We need to do that all over the country. That is why i left the senate and went to heritage. I realized politicians are just corks bobbing on the water. It is up to us to create the current. That is what vigilant citizens have to do. We have to build support the right ideas so that when candidates go out and talk about what we need to do in america to create opportunity for all, like more energy development, like more school choice, and tax reform, americans recognize that a something that will make their life better. It is not a political idea. It is a personal idea. They have to see when the guys who go to washington are playing favorites, picking winners and losers who are part of the big crony washington establishment. You can see that easily by how they vote. There are a lot of excuses. I heard it all when i was fighting earmarks. They would say this is good, it is important. You can find some that were good. The because you supported one, you ended up supporting 10,000. That is why we are 18 trillion in debt. People in washington are trying to buy votes and Campaign Contributions from the Interest Groups inside washington. Our job, my job at heritage, is to make your voices louder than the voices inside washington. That is how we keep freedom in america. [applause] jim demint so folks, have a good time. There are going to be some great folks speaking to you. Not as candidates. But we know who they are and why they are here. [laughter] jim demint we have a great group of people who love this country, who understand what makes it work, and im glad they are coming here because they know they are accountable to the folks sitting in this audience and audiences like it all over the country. We have a great country. We have been blessed beyond anything we can imagine. It is up to us to keep it. Thank you for being here. [applause] bringing conservativism team you like nobody else. Thank you. It is my honor to introduce the next speaker, someone who needs no introduction to South Carolina. One of my colleagues in congress from the fifth congressional district, a seat held by republicans for the first time in 130 years after he knocked off john spratt. [applause] my good friend, Mick Mulvaney. [applause] Mick Mulvaney thank you so much. It is so nice to be introduced by jed. A quarter of us got elected together and are still close. It is nice of him to say nice things. You would expect him to say nice things. What he did not tell you about me is i am a terrible public speaker. I cannot give an exciting red meat speech. I dont know how i got to be in this position without being able to do that, but i am lousy at doing giving exciting speeches. Im not even going to try to fire you up. Im going to try to give you one thing to think about or ask you to think about one thing as you sit here and listen to all these folks come through. That is this. A lot of these folks are going to come through and try and convince you that they are great conservatives. That they believe in what you believe. That they believe in faith family, and freedom. They are going to want to assume a leadership position in our conservative movement. As each one of them comes up, i hope you look at every single one of them through this perspective. The largest voting Demographic Group in the 2016 election will be people between the ages of 18 and 30. The fastestgrowing Demographic Group will be hispanics. Look around you in this room. Convincing you is not the issue. Who can convince somebody else . Today, ask yourselves who can talk to those folks . Who can take what we believe, our principles and ideals, and talk to folks not in this room . By talk to, i do not mean pander. No one likes to be pandered to, especially people who think youre pandering to them for a vote. By talked to, i do not mean watering down the message and watering down our principles. We tried that in 2008, and it did not work. We tried that in 2012, and it did not work. Im talking about finding folks who can articulate conservative principles to explain to you not only why they are conservatives but why you should be conservative and why these conservative principles are what is going to save the country. Who can talk to people about the benefits of capitalism. It is not easy to do. Who can talk to people about the opportunities brought by freedom and liberty. It is not easy to do. Who can talk to people not in this room about the dangers of government control and socialism. It is not easy to do. It has been a long time since we have found somebody able to take that outside of this room to a broader audience. We are looking for someone, man, woman, who can not only tell you what you want to hear, but who can tell the rest of the country what they need to hear. [applause] Mick Mulvaney if that is what comes through today as you imagine if this person is that sort of person, if we find somebody today who can not only talk about our principles in South Carolina, texas, and wyoming but can talk to young people in new york and hispanics in california and African Americans in illinois, if we find that person here today that will be much more exciting than any speech i could have given. Thank you very much for all you do for the movement. Thank you for what you have done for South Carolina. Thank you for having me here today. [applause] this came in under a minute. We are gaining time. [laughter] thank you for that because the next guy may need it. A good friend of mine from southern louisiana i started in congress with, elected in 2010. Many of you met him at my barbecue a couple of years ago when anderson. Congressman jeff landry is from a working class, middle class family from saint martinsville, louisiana down on the bayou. He grew up through louisianas oil bust. He is a very conservative person. One of my mentors when he was in congress. A little bit about him he is a veteran of desert storm and left the military with the right of sergeant. He received the Army Achievement medal, the National Defense ribbon, overseas Training Ribbon and louisiana were cross from his 11 years of service as a member of the Louisiana National guard. He may be difficult for us to understand because he does have a cajun accent, but youre going to love him like i do. Former congressman jeff landry, the future attorney general from the state of louisiana. Jeff. [applause] jeff landry