Transcripts For CSPAN2 Campaign 20240704

Next, Chris Christie makes his first camping trip to South Carolina sinceaunching his 2024 bid for the white house to the former new jersey governor takes questions from voters during a town hall event in columbia. [inaudible conversations] ladies and gentlemen, governor Chris Christie. [applause] [applause] hey, everybody. Please be seated. Thanks for coming. Thank you, nice cool day here in South Carolina. Its good. We left new jersey it was 88 degrees and i said man, thats not hot enough to lets get to columbia. So thank you all for having the. We appreciate it very much. Good to be back in South Carolina. I come here pretty consistently since 2010. I was elected governor of new jersey back in 2009. 2010 i came dander and campaigned for nikki haley which is running for governor in the first time. Came back down here in 2012 to campaign for mitt romney when he was running for president. Came back to as chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2014. Campaigned again for governor haley. Came back in 2016 and campaigned for donald trump when he was running for president in 2016. I think you back again in 2018 to campaign for my old friend Henry Mcmaster but when i say old friend its not that im calling henry old. He would be very offended by that but we are longtime friends because when henry was the attorney general in South Carolina i was excited to turn it in new jersey and we did a joint investigation together. I remember when henry called it because office was investigating the state fraudster that my office was. This fraudster was ripping f people in both South Carolina and new jersey and so we were both independently investigated after you all know and governor mcmasters about will know this story is true, he called a secretary came in and said the attorney general South Carolina is on the counter i got on and have got on the phone and introduce himself and then he said, inc. And the guy who were investigating. Are you familiar with . I am. He said got a question for you. He said are we going to fight with each other or Work Together . He said because if you Work Together we will be able to put this boy away from a long time. I said lets Work Together, and we did. We put them away in federal prison for a very long time with a lot of help from the attorney general South Carolina. Ive been down here a lot over the last now almost ten years. Its good to be back here i was here in 15 and 16 i was one of the small field of 17 people running for president of the United States, and its always interesting, always interesting to see how the world changes. I stopped over at the Palmetto Club a little while ago to see a groupgo of folks from the county republican organization. One woman asked me why are you in this race rex i said thats a fair question. I am i in this race . I figure thats where i would start tonight. If you asked me a year ago if i was going to be in this race i probably would have told you know. We have come my wife mary pat, stand up very counter everyone gets too see you. My wife is with me tonight. [applause] yes and she, just so , you came up to her later and you detect a certain toughness and that has nothing to do with new jersey. [laughter] that has to do with the fact she is number nine of 10 children. [laughter] she has been fighting with six older brothers since the day she was born and two older sisters. Im glad she has traveled with me. We have children between the ages of 20 and 30. She couldnt travel as she wanted to but this time there is really nothing left back there for her. She has to travel with me now. Im glad shes with me. You cant do this as one person. If you are married and you decide youre running for president , it is tough and about members of the team were not with you, its not impossible but its pretty hard. When you look at this race, we came very concerned. Both of us feel joe biden has let this country down and just about every way you can think of. He ran for president and said he would bring the country together. That he was going to be a moderate leader for the country and try to bring the two extremes of both parties into a place for they could Work Together. A lot of people, not me but a lot of people voted for him based on that idea. He ran as part of the left incursion. He placated the far left of his own Party Spending an normas amounts of money and creating the worst inflation with had in this country because of his government spending. That means you pass your sell by date. Okay . It means its time to go. If you cant stay awake in your own office in the middle of the afternoon when youre talking to the president of israel, its probably time to go back to wilmington. So first motivation, for getting into this race was we have to get rid of joe biden. And by the way, i want to be clear that i pray every night for joe bidens good health not only because he is our president but because of who our Vice President is. [applause] if you think this is bad, can you imagine what that show would look like . Thats reason number one. Reason number two is, i thought by this time, given everything that happened that the Republican Party would realize that races that look backwards are not winning races. Candidates who look backwards are not winning candidates and they are not leaders. I will tell you this. I am tired, tired of hearing about the 2020 election. [applause] and by the way, im from new jersey here if you want to talk about voter fraud, okay . We take a backseat only to illinois. In fact, one of my predecessors who was sent just passed away he used to say that he made his wife promise that when he died that she would bury him in jersey city, new jersey, so he could be made active in politics. [laughter] so im not naive everybody. I know that theres always a little bit of walking business that goes on in every election. But not enough to change the result of an election in six states. So lets start there. It didnt happen. It didnt happen. [applause] joe biden sleeping in the white house tonight and its our fault. Its our fault. And by us i mean republicans who allowed President Trump to do the things that he did. It empowered him and we have been empowering him ever since he left the white house and hes been taking advantage of us as a result now, the most egregious one i just heard today, that i remember because i was in that 16 race to one of the things donald trump set on that stage, among many things that he said on the stage, was im a billionaire. On the richest guy on the stage but i dont need anybody elses money and nobody can buy me or only, unlike these other guys were all out there asking for money. Im going to be just for you. Okay. So then how would you explain this. Is sec reports have come out. 50 cents of every dollar that is being donated to his president ial campaign is going to pay his personal legal fees. 50 cents of every dollar. 17 million so far. Now, if you are a billionaire, i know how to count to a billion appeared 17 million, i mean im a lawyer, so its not like im great at it, but 70 million if less than a billion. And you get yourself in all this legal trouble, pay your own legal fees. Instead, hes taking ten, 25, 50 for middleclass americans across this country who believe in him and want him to use that money to get reelected president of the United States, and hes taking it and hes putting it in his own pocket to pay his lawyers. Eight is disgraceful. Its beneath the office he asks for, that that alone should disqualify him from being our nominee in 2024. [applause] the whole damn family is on the drift, okay . His daughter and her husband. Again, Jared Kushner, the son of a multibillionaire from my home state, he gets sent to the middle east to negotiate on behalf of our country, i guess the president sent him because hes such an expert on the middle east, having been a Real Estate Developer in new jersey developing garden departments there im sure thats why he sent him here ill tell you why he sent him. We didnt sleep until six months after. Six months after Donald Trumpsia leaves office, Jared Kushner gets on the plane and goes to Riyadh Saudi Arabia and become so with 2 billion of saudi money to cede his investment fund. At which of which you wia percentage of that money every year for the rest of his life whether he makes a nickel for the saudis or not. If anyone else in this country had first hired their daughter and soninlaw into the white house, and then set them up to get 2 billion of money from the saudis, there would be outrage but somehow with doctor hes skating pastt about. We cant let it because let me tell you, we put them back they come to think things would happen. The exact same thing is going to happen. Lastly, all right, i get it, he lies, hes selfish, but i like his policies. So im going to vote for him because i like his policies. I like a lot of his policies he pursued and want to remind all of you, i was the first person to endorse him when i dropped out of r the race in 2016, the first governor in this country to endorse him, the first former candidate to endorse a. I shared his transition to the white house. I chaired his opioid and drug abuse commission. This will keep you up tonight, you especially i want you to think about this malcolm i played with clinton in debate prep, lee, hillary clinton. Took me a while. Theres a number of things i had to learn but i wont go into that. I played joe biden in debate prep d in 2024 donald trump i hd to take a few sedatives before i did, but i worked it out there might point to you is underm coming down here to South Carolina as some never trump. I worked hard to get him elected in 2016. I worked hard every day to make them the best president he possibly could be for all of us at support a lot of his policies. But he failed us. D failed us. He said is going to repeal and replace obamacare. And with a Republican Congress she didnt get it done. You remember this one. He was going to build a big beautiful wall across the entire border of mexico, and mexico was going to pay for it. Let me tell you, what happened after four years you can go on the department of Homeland Security website and see it for yourself. In the four years he built 52 miles of new wall. 52 miles peer and by the way, we are still waiting for the first peso from mexico to pay for that. Not a nickel from mexico to pay for it. If you do the math in your head, i did this before, building the wall at that pace, he would have to be president for another 110 years to get the entire wall done. He failed us. He said i will balance the budget in four years because im a businessman, i know how to balance budgets peer to know what he did . He added 6 trillion to t the National Debt in four years. Shocking, but it shouldnt be because this is the guy who in mye home state set his three casinos bankrupt three times. Now let me ask you a question. Who cant make money with a casino . [laughter] i mean, how damn stupid you have to be to not be able to make money in the casino . They always win. How many of you have ever come out of the casino say like, man, i one. I never have. [laughter] 6 trillion. One other quick story when i was governor of new jersey i inherited an 11 billion deficit on a 29 billion budget. In 2010. We balanced that budget without raising taxes. Weax cut 836 individual program, out, to balance that budget. The reason i bring it up is because wind that was going on there was lot of publicity about the democrats want me to raiseo taxes to her i said no. A friend ofen mine called me wih an idea. Donald trump. He called me from newro york and he said chris, i see this big budget problem you have to got an idea for you to watch that . He said go bankrupt. I said no, donald. States are not allowed by law to go bankrupt. We cant go bankrupt or he goes no. Just do it. He said it will be three years before it gets gets thrs and everyone will think you are a hero. We shouldnt be surprised. 6 trillion to the National Debt. So on the issues that you care about, if you say i know donald trump is not a good person i know he lies. I know hes broken the law. S i know hes drifting for himself and for his family. But i like his policies i would ask you a question. Why thewh hell would you hire hm to implement those policies . Hes proven he cant do it. Now, our country now is in a circumstance much like when we were in the late 70s. For thoser , joe bidens favorite president was president. Energy crisis, runaway inflation , people worried about jobs, soviets invading afghanistan, boycotting the olympics, hostages in iran. And the president who said we are under a malaise and it was our fault that america wasnt great. What did we do when confronted with that . In 1980, we turned to a conservative governor from a blue state new how to solve problems. What we need in the government now is someone knows how to run the government and solve those problems and has done it the toughest circumstances. With all due respect, to the other governors in this race who all had republican legislatures, every minute of every day of every week of every month of every year that i was governor, i had a democratic legislature. Every day. I would have given my right arm to have a republican legislature. They would have never done the things we could do. We had to bring people together and get things done. We didnt do a whole bunch of liberal things. We reformed the Pension System for Public Employees and save taxpayers 120 billion. May Public Employees contribute to their Health Insurance so the taxpayers didnt have to pay every nickel. We fired the entire city of Camden Police department because they were the most dangerous city in america and there were 400 of these cops who were failing every day in the union wouldnt let us change so we fired all of them. We brought in new place and train them and what has happened in the 10 years since . The murder rate in camden is down 75 . We need to have someone who has done Law Enforcement to get crime under control in our cities across the country. Taxing our cities is disgraceful and unacceptable and if im president of the United States, violent criminals who carry guns will go to jail and they will stay there. [applause] Ronald Reagan understood this. I remember sitting in my dorm room in 1980, september at the university of delaware voting for president for the first time in my life. I was 18 got my absentee ballot. It wasnt rigged, it was a real ballot i only got one of them and i only filled up one of them. I sat there and i put the x in the box next to Ronald Reagan because he was the person who told me i know how to run this and i know how to fix this and i am going to make your life full of hope and aspirations fulfilled. I trusted him and i voted for him and he it was the greatest vote for president ive ever made in my life because he kept his word to us. [applause] we need to do the same thing again. We need to take a chance on somebody who knows how to govern. Thats why i am in this race. One last thing all of my colleagues who are in this race as well i have to tell you i did an interview before here and they asked me if i could be senator from the state and i thought he was a formidable candidate. I like him and i think hes a good man. I think he tries his very best every day for the people of the state and the country and ive known him for 10 years and i like him a great deal personally. I just think im Better Qualified to be governor just having been governor for eight years than him being in the legislature. Someday, he and i may have to have that argument. In terms of the kind of people the other candidates are, heres my problem and when i got in they wont go against donald trump. [applause] they are afraid of him. And they say they are afraid of his voters. No politician in this country owns any voters. Our birthright is that we listen and speak and reason and decide. He does not own any voter in the state or iowa or New Hampshire or nevada or any other state will come after him. They shouldnt be afraid of anything. You deserve two things as voters of this country. You deserve truth first and foremost. The truth is not negotiable. We gotten to a point in our country where everybody thinks that the truth is there truth. If you hear something on one station and you dont like it, turn to a station like. Maybe they will have the truth you like to hear. Its not negotiable. Our mother and father taught us that. I try to couple of times to negotiate the truth with my parents. As you might imagine, it did not go well. It never went well, my mother i lost her 19 years ago and she never got to see me be governor and she never got seeming run for president. But something in the back of her mind mustve told her what kind of man she would have to raise to have a chance to do that. She used to say to me, christopher, remember this your stealth because tomorrow, you will have to try to remember who you pretended to be yesterday. Its great advice and all these folks who are running in this race need to get real. They know everything i just said. You know the worst part . They whisper it to me. Youre doing great. Go get them. Let them have it. The guy from new jersey says you can do it. [laughter] he asked me why are you best equipped to take on donald trump . I said ive known him 22 years. The second reason is guys from new jersey have been dealing with obnoxious guys from new york forever. [applause] we know how to deal with them. I will end with this and take your questions. Our country is at a moment where we have to decide whether we will be big or small. We are so small right now. Think about the small things we argue about. Small things. Governor desantis is saying that he wants to bring a lawsuit on behalf of florida pension holders against beverages because of the decisions bud light made on their advertising and maybe it affect the value of the stock. Let me tell you something, you all have rendered a verdict on bud light. You didnt like their advertising . You stopped buying their beer. Thats what america is all about. You dont need the government in there to make a decision for you , what you will buy or wont buy. Power of the American People, the power of your wallet, you dont like what targets doing, dont go there. You dont want bud light selling, you dont buy it. By whatever the heck you want. Governor desantis thanks thats an issue that gets everybody riled up. Thats compared to the big issues we have. He can hit that as hard as he can, maybe it will get you so angry that you will say yeah, i will vote for the angry guy. Not that angry guide the other angry guy. Im not angry about anything. Im not angry. Im coming. I dont not to fight for myself, i want to fight for you. If you win, i win. I like doing big things. In 1776, if you had taken a poll in this country, nobody wanted to fight great britain, it was the biggest army in the world. We thought those guys in philly were crazy, adams, jefferson, washington. Poll it. They said i know its right and we need our own country to be truly free and thank god they did because here we are. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln had hard decisions to make. He could have let the south go. We would have been to small countries. Instead, he decided to go big. He set a house divided against itself shall not stand. We sacrificed a lot. A lot of blood and treasure and sadness. What happened after that war, we were bigger and stronger and better. In 1940 one, Franklin Roosevelt stood up and said im not going to let hitlers and mussolini and hero quito hirohito come for us and we sacrificed men and women, sacrificed incredibly here at home and overseas to fight that war and we won it. What happened at the end of it, america was bigger, stronger, freer and richer than we had ever been. In 1981, that california governor said the soviet union is an evil empire. Im going to relegate them to history. Eight years later, the berlin wall fell. 10 years later, the soviet union was gone. We have sacrificed a lot to do that. Lot more government money got spent. Lives got lost but where are we at the end of it check america was the only superpower, freer, stronger, richer than wed ever been before. We are at the same moment now and the enemy is the chinese and we know it. Weve got to decide. Do we want to win again . Do we want to go bigger continue to fight on these small issues . Im sorry, its amusing but they dont make a free country. Im running for president of the United States because i want to do it for you. I want to do the big things again so that we can be stronger, freer, richer and a leader all around the world. For that lady that asked me, i give her the short version of that. [laughter] why i am in this race, thats why im in this race. I am here in South Carolina because you have a unique position and you know it. We will get through iowa and New Hampshire. Brace yourself. The weight these days are working, we will probably be here for a month bugging you poor people with their tv ads in our town hall meetings. Heres what i would ask you to do, go to all of them. Doctors come to mind. Go to all of them. Ask the tough questions, challenge us. This is not a tv show. This is not sitting across a fake conference table in a fake Conference Room and saying youre fired. This is the real deal and we are at a moment of history. It is time to get the showman off the stage and try to get the people who know and care about this country back in charge of it. We dont need to people 160 years old this november. [applause] we are not a divided country. I saw a pull the other day, 70 of americans say they dont want it to be trump and biden. Lets give them a parting gift and say you united us, get out, both of you. Go to the beach, go and do whatever you need to do. Thank you for your service. Go home. Its time for us to start doing the big things again. Im proud to be here. I love this country. I care deeply about it. And we can talk about a lot of other things when you ask questions. Anything is in balance. I just remind you that i am from new jersey. [laughter] you know what that means. It means you can ask me anything you want and i will answer anything you ask me and i will not sugarcoat it. But if you decide you want an argument, we will have it. And we will have a good one. Raise your hand and the microphone will come to you. Lets get the microphone turned on. Is that good . Yeah. Im glad i came. I remember well what you were talking about in the late 70s when we whip somebodys tail and hockey. We had people screaming in vermont. I think we need somebody your age right now who has these ideas to bring forth. My brotherinlaw retired. About 1990, im an engineer doing the asset level work doing nasa level work. Is that i got invited to go to trump plaza and he was an executive headhunter. He was down there and he said i was invited as a guest and i had breakfast early. He said it was basically just cereal. When the meeting was over, he was going to screen candidates for trump and i got stuck with the bill which was like 50 for a bowl of cereal. He got an odd feeling about it. Ive been down there and have been in the trade center before they fell when it was new and ive been to the casinos and i know what you are talking about. That shows the character we have all seen. Too much radicalism and no moderation. We need someone who cares about country as a whole, not just about themselves. The fact is, when you hear him talking, he is talking about he will be the retribution. Is that what we want . I am your retribution . He will be his own retribution. He wont be ours. Want you to think about something the presidency is too big a job for any man or woman to do by themselves. You have to have great people around. He hired a lot of really good people the first time. Where are they now . All of his chiefs of staff are opposed to being reelected. His sec. Of states openly oppose him being reelected, both of his secretaries of defense openly oppose him being reelected both his attorneys general openly opposed and being reelected. Both his white house counsels, his lawyers openly opposed and being reelected. His sector of transportation, his secretary of commerce. Everybody who is close to him not only will not work for him again, they are out there say they are opposed to him being elected. Who is going to work for this man . Forget about the c suite. This is going to be the f team. And it will be showtime again everybody for him. And so you know i have to tell you, i said this the other day in response to your comment, they asked me about what i thought the billionaire whos taking all this money to pay its own legal fees and i had a weak moment on television. I actually absolutely told the unvarnished truth there i said hes the cheapest slb ive ever met in my life. Last night and is. He just isnt. So thats okay. Who cares, its his money. He aint cheap with ours though. 6 trillion to the National Debt. Not cheap with hours. Yes, maam. Whos got the microphone . Where are we . Thank you. Retired from the air force 30 years active duty and reserve. [applause] thank you. I never thought i would see the day that our capital would be rioted. It really disgusted me. Not why we serve. So the question to you, jack smith the special y counsel loos like hes coming down pretty soon. Gerald ford lost his second term. Was because he pardoned nixon, i dont know, but i think the chess game is on and i i thk the company is losing. What do you think . Will look, because i was a prosecutor for seven years of my life ith think i understand this better than most. Im happy to quickly go through it. The new york case i think is a pile of garbage. I wouldve have never bought that case. Look, the manhattan das job is to make sure that it keeps the people of manhattan safe and secure. I dont know how bring a case against a 77 year old guy for paying off a porn star to keep quiet about having sex with him seven years ago makes manhattan any safer. I dont think he needs to bring the case especially when i go to manhattan a couple times a week and man you to walk around district you dont want to walk around the right now, you just dont. I think that case should have been brought doesnt mean this conduct was good, it was a good whe shouldnt be paying off a porn star to keep quiet before an election so we dont find out that you had an affair with her. Not the kind of character you necessarily want behind the desk in the oval office but its not a crime. On the documents case, look, you served and you know that those military plans are secret for a reason. Because if our opponents get their hands on them anyway, it puts men like you and the women who serve as well at risk. Put aside all the other stuff he did, he was putting our servicemen and women at risk by having those documents laying around her what was he doing with them anyway courts he was still pretended to be president , everybody. He kept those documents to pretend to be president. For 18 months, i love the people who say he never shouldve had his house rated. Is why his house was rated. Because for 18 months he asked involuntarily to give the stuff back. By letter, by phone call to his lawyers, finally for grand jury subpoena guess what . He would not be facing the charges hes facing today if you have he had done what any one of us would have done. Give the dam papers back. What are you doing with them . You are not the president anymore. Why do you need the secret work plan against iran . Know what is calling to ask your opinion. [laughter] biden is not quite so donald what you think about the iran thing . Not happening. He did it to himself, and worse. He lied and obstructed the government. From getting that stuff back. Hesac in trouble on that case. That case is now set for may 20 of 2024. If you are republican in israel was committed to wanting to defeat joe biden because you think is not the right president , why in gods name would we nominate somebody whos going to be on federal criminal trial five and half months before election day rex it is insanity. He did it to himself. And about january sixth, i dont know what the charges going to look like, and im a careful prosecutor. I dont comment on these things dick remember when the last one is getting ready to outcome announced on friday and they released the indictment friday. They kept asked me, i have no opinion, i haventt read the document after how about i find what theyre charging with before what i say skillfully, innocent or whether the charges are good . Im a stickler for that stuff so i dont know whats going to happen to but in atlanta they have one of the biggest rico statutes, broadest rico statutes of any state in the country pit and today it was reported that they intend to charge you under the racketeering statute in georgia. What that means is that he set up a corrupt organization to try to commit a crime. Thats coming as well. Like whats left . Whats left . Look, i have prosecuted cases for seven years in new jersey and im proud of what we did we get 130 political Corruption Cases against republicans and democrats without a defeat. 130 and nothing to report 10 of the new Jersey State Legislature in jail. 10 . [applause] which you can imagine made it incredibly comfortable when i wi think that elected governor andr went out with 90 we missed. But i know what im talking about in this step and we need to move on. We needee to move on. We need to provide to a person to understand what Law Enforcement is all about. And the answer with this, he s said that it was okay to suspend the constitution if you think the election was stolen from you. And winters asked about y brett blair, he stood behind it. When he was asked just what i want to provide you with the oath under oath of office as the president of the United States. One of the things you swear to do with your hand on a bible is to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States. Not suspend. Defend. Anybody in my opinion who says that its okay to suspend the constitution is disqualified from being president of the United States. He is disqualified. [applause] let me go to him first, come right back to you. Sure. Im from new york and i thane you for having us a couple of questions. I disagree with a lot of what you sa without, of respect which he did in your jersey i wonder if me and my family can take a picture with you . Absolute. Were going going to t now. How about this . All right. No, on. Jordan will take the picture but what is your name, brother . Nicholas. Nicholas, nice to meet you peter here we go. You are in the you. What is your name . Nice to meet you. All right. [inaudible] thank you, my man. Excellent. Thank you, sir. [applause] hey governor christie. We probably asked you this question before. One point to me people south, depend on Social Security check, probably a lot of folks in the super what would a christie presidency do to make it solution solvent for future generations . Im glad you asked because 11 years from right now, 11 years Social Security will be bankrupt. Under the law that means an automatic 25 reduction in benefits immediately for everybody who is receiving Social Security. Now, for some of you in this room may be taking Social Security number some of you likely are close. By 11 years we will clearly be taking Social Security. A 25 reduction in Social Security for men and women who are relying upon it to pay the rent, to buy their food, to help support themselves, is unsustainable. The most disgusting moment in joe bidens presidency in my view was a state of the union stood up and said can we all agree theyre not going to do anything to Social Security . And both parties stood up ande cheered. Welcome know what except for me afterward on abc explain to people what that meant. Doing nothing beats a 25 reduction in every persons benefit. It cant happen. So everything has got to be on the table. And it means should we have means testing . Does work buffet need Social Security . Does mark zuckerberg, does elon musk . Toto people who have gathering enormous wealth, as much as i respect him for, i d do want to take any of it, but once they have it, do you really need the Social Security check . Secondly, retirement age. Not for people in their 50s or 60s were too close to retirementfo to change what they can do to prepare for retirement. But mary pat and i have an eldest son who is 30. 30 if i tell about the retirement age is going to be two years higher than what it is right now and hes got 35 years to prepare for it, if he doesnt, hes got bigger problems. We need to have that conversation. Imsa not someone who will favor raising taxes because i think our taxes are high enough and i dont think we need to do it. We can make those other kinds of adjustments to heres the thinga about this waster im the only person in this race who will look to you in the eye and sm going to make changes that will save and strengthen the Social Security program you know the last president whoas did it . It was Ronald Reagan who said i will not let Social Security good tempered it was ready to go bankrupt and the things reagan did in then 80s have reserved this thing until 2034, 450 years. I want to reserve it for another 50. And everybody in this race who says that they wont discuss the issue or say we dont need to do anything or ill come up with something,hi beware. Ill tell you what donald trump said to me eight years ago that i came out with a plan on Social Security eight years ago for a child came up to the on the debate stage one night during the commercials, and by the way, if he or our national rnc would want tol do make money with the dealers sell do is sell payperview for whats going on during the commercials its like six, seven minute commercial break in here on stage what the hell do you do . Youre not allowed to go talk to advise you. You could say hello to your wife or husband or children but you basically have to talk to eachs other. And by this time everybody hated trump except for me. Jeb went and talked with marco wouldnt talk to after they all hated him to the only person he had to talk he was eager to come over to me and said by the way, i saw that thing you put out on Social Security and medicare he goes its really, really smart i said thank you. He said ill never do it because its not popular, but but he said its really smart. Is not the kind of pleasure you want . Because if you reelect him i guarantee you he will do nothing. He will blame somebody else and he will be long out of dodge by the time the 25 cut comes. So we got to go back to the way reagan dealt with this in the 80s, be smart about this, deal with it head on so that nobody goes to the bank account and sees the direct deposit 25 less than it was the month before because that will cost lives. All this grandstanding by everybody else in this race i because no one else will talk about it, he reported, nancy what are you, stupid . When a you talk to social secury for . Ignored. I want to do the big things. This is a big thing for the men and women in this country have spent their whole lives paying into that fund every two weeks out of their paycheck that we need to keep our faith with them thats exactly how i would do it. Right here. Governor while the legislae was heavily democratic and yet you may progress their. The country now is split almost in half on some of the issues. How can you get beyond that, how can you help us as a country get beyond this so we are not so polarized . Good question and an important question. I can only refer back to how i did it in new jersey. Right after i got elected, elected a new Senate President , Steve Sweeney and he was the president of the Iron Workers Union and you might imagine a shy type like me. Iut said before i was sworn in,o you have an appointment . No. Two hours from my house to his office just showed up and walked in. I dont think the Senate President is expecting you and said no, i was in the neighborhood. And said okay, ill go get her visas your neighborhood is two hours away. Michael whats up . Got one question for you. I said the next eight years we want to make headlines . He said for years and i should eat years. [laughter] i was right. He said i promise you two things, i wasas always into you and when i give you my word, i will keep my word and he looked at me and said good and i shook hiss hand. Anybody in this room, civilian or reporter goes back to talk to him today, i always kept my word to him. Politics is still a a basis of people and we have dehumanized this thing by not going to dinner withth them, yelling at them in front of people. Weve do you humanize them. A friend of mine said is going to see the New York Times and said what are you doing . He said no, you dont understand, its hard to eight. So the first thing you do as president is spend time with these people. Theyre not going to get all of them. On both sides of the aisle, listen to them. Then go and negotiate the best you can make progress in the guy who disagrees, 20 of the time is not 20 enemy, hes my 80 friend. So its not easy and it not guaranteed. One of the toughest states in the country. What you expect from us in the end zone to accomplish something. Not just go down and blow hot air. Then come back two or four years later and say you saw my speeches and it wasnt my fault and everything will be fine. We cant do that anymore. More than that, the opportunities to take pass. Believe me, many nights at 11 00 p. M. We would be in bed and my phone would ring and coming home from dinner or a meeting is a really . I said take it all. They never wanted him to be able to stay. It wasnt all sunshine and roses, we got the peoples work done and part of it up close. In california with a bunch of unruly democrats and make it happen. They disagreed on almost everything and found a way to cut taxes. After 6 00 the sit there and talk to each other. They dont do that anymore. Were not going to accomplish anything continuing to scream at each t other. When i need to be tough, you know any to be tough and you seen it but is not everything. South carolina, youve got to have more than one and i do. Donald trump doesnt. He takes his driver to the green. I am a centrist and wanted to know whether you like it or not, trumps influence is outsized got people on the Supreme Court and type of judge they will be, what is your vision for a Supreme Court that seems to be more aligned with hopes and wishes of the political body as a whole . I actually disagree with you on some of the. It kind of makes me angry when after years in the 50s and 60s and 70s we had liberal justices making up things in the constitution and because we see that on the court, they stayed in place and now theyre saying no, its not in the constitution. Its not right to discriminate against anyone because of the color of their skin. They are an doing those things and now its unclear. I would argue it is different and you may not agree with it and that is what is great about democracy. People will do thingsn differently. I waseowi a this, o justice cous all that well and i dont know that i would appoint him but i know Amy Courtney Barrett and i definitely would have appointed her and Brett Kavanaugh and i would have appointed him. I just dont know them well enough but whats really going on is what barack obama said a number of years ago. Elections have consequences so more republican president and Ruth Bader Ginsburg trust herschel, decided to take it to the end, right to the end. Donald trump was in the white house and barack obama was in the white house someone like her would be appointed to her seat and that was her choice has consequences. Justice kennedy on the other hand left before he died. He left world donald trump was president. Their political consequences for all of this. What i think is important, i hate the attack on the validity of the court because they said what theyve been saying in the minority for years of these things are wrong. Now they come and they are in the majority and they reverse them. This is what they have stood for they still have not given up on the rule of law so when donald trump brings the election to them if you look at the decision the Supreme Courtos makes, the thing that happens the most, the ones we read about are the six to three and five to four. I think were running down our country that we need, independent judiciary and i own everybody else in government and whether or me like them or not. Ruth Bader Ginsburg couldnt care less whether i agree or didnt. That is whatt we need and i am concerned as we ran down the Supreme Court we are going to diminish the value of the court to our democracy. It is like every other precountry in the world, the dictatorship. Could disagree on some of the but my vision, i would look for the very best qualified people in my philosophy of the role of federal court and you know what i also learned . They all forget who appoints them once they get in. They all believe they were virgin t births. Politics . I have nothing to do with politics. I dont know. Well, begging to be appointed, right . Whatever you need, ill be your guy. They all forget and republicans have seen that with a number of justices. Blackman was appointed by richard nixon, he wrote roe v. Wade. Appointed by bush 41, one of the most liberal as it turns out in the modern history of the court so you pick right and that is the beauty. David would do what hes going to do. I grew up, 20 years old and grew up a poster of Ronald Reagan in my room. Will have my vote for president but in 2020 i voted for joe biden and the reason is 2016, a general election in 2016 and donald trump make clear he would not be under any circumstance so while i respect you are speaking out against him now, if and when youre of the president , how can i go to bed at night trusting you have a good grasp on the struggle . Let me clarify the record a little bit, i focused on election, 2020 on Live Television 2 30 a. M. The votes have not been counted cap. That was when he proved office and maybe i should have known sooner but i didnt and i didnt want him to be present and i respect your vote but i didnt want him to be present and kind of anticipated what c. And i said come to me and he said why . I said i wont disappoint you. [laughter] i said exactly what i believed, the man given the honor and privilege of stewarding over our democracy can never put himself in front of. [applause] why should go to bed and feel comfortable about the fact that i understand that, i am saying it. You stay in that. If i am saying it now, if you honor me with your vote and im fortunate enough to stand on the west front of the capital january 20 of 20205, you can go to bed at night knowing that i understand what it means to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States and i will do that. Thank you for being here, governor. My daughters name is reagan and all the conversation has been awesome about the big issues im going to ask you about something more small, republican candidates are leaning into this. I r am a School Board Member in the area, curriculum crackdown and know what your thoughts are on this issue. Let me thank you for what you do because school board is the most elected position in america. [applause] look, i really believe in what you do and i believe these decisions b about what is taught in our schools, parents in consultation with School Boards are parents who volunteer their time to be on the school board to oversee the s people, the professionals everyday. Somehow the government can make these decisions better than the pet scan. They not only have the right to be involved, its an obligation. Taking care of it and taking care of my kids. Governor desantis wants to tell all of us what books we can read and what things we can teach, but we cant teach and what i can permit a child to do and what i cant permit a child to do. I dont know what kind of parity is among three beautiful children, i assume hes a good dad but doesnt mean he and i willth agree anymore than you would agree, you or you or you, we will all raise our children different. I know im doing something my kids are going to repeat. I just dont know what it is because of i knew, i would stop, right . We all have our ways but i will tell you parents working with the school board at the local level, not the president of the United States, at the governor of South Carolina make those. [applause] we came here, maybe secondary desire to find out friends in South Carolina would react. [laughter] so i do have a question. The question is, why is it hard to talk about Climate Change in our country . I think there are two reasons, the first is that for most people, it is kind of a similar concept like its hot today. Its always hot in South Carolina. What people is exact proof you want to see it, feel it and touch it and Climate Change, i believe there is Climate Change and they contribute to it. That is my simple deduction. We are doing a lot of stuff that a thousand years ago and heres the bigger problem, the rest of the world is concerned about Climate Change so in the last decade have lowereded our carbon output bye appealing and we are making progress in this country and everybody is contribute to it did the chinese have increased 5 billion. Were going to make our life more expensive and difficult to try to save the earth and the chinese make it harder because they refuse to join the party and they say you have your industrial revolution. They have this 50 years ago. This is part of the problem, the core of the Climate Change problem in america is we feel we are treated unfairly and americans will disarm and they will get an advantage on us and weve got to compete. If we dont get that right, there will be ramifications for climate and they will be technological, we cant keep of this but we know its going to happen if weow dont engage them in a way that makes them understand. I have no problem with the chinese competing with us, just on a level playing field. Stop stealing intellectual i property and by the ideas so those of the big problems, the second piece they feel the taken advantage of. Energy policy which directly impacts climate, i am for all of the above. I have no problem with wind and solar, i was governor in the second largest oilproducing in the country, imagine that. Arizona was first and we were second. New jersey, guess what type of Energy Produced 53 nuclear. A densely populated state in america, we ran safely and have for 55 years and it is clean energy. Why are we doing more . Where they still . That happened 50 years ago and the technology is so much better, we should be looking at nuclearld but until solar and wd is later developed, weve got to do oil anddo gas because our lis are not going to be what we want it to be without it so i think we do all the and continue to invest and drop the fear of nuclear. Its not nuclear from the china syndrome, its not any of those things anymore. Safer and cleaner and more effective than it ever has been and we are looking at that and i dontt mind reading on the as long as they dont our Industrial Base and ability to compete too far behind that we cant catch up to the chinese. Im from the great state of new jersey and ive lived there 22 years. The saddest part ofod my day is when i go home and turn on the tv and im reminded the number one cause of death and illness, they go to go and get shot by guns. My question isgo twofold, i struggle to understand why anyone whos not on t the u. S. Should go by an ar and use it to kill people and theres the issue of Mental Health and people are i now finding a mentl health issue, not a gun control issue. Two things on the gun issue. Ill start backwards on the mental piece of it. Part of the Mental Health problem in this country is the stigma attached to it. If someone in this room work diagnosed tomorrow with cancer, they would not hesitate to call her friend or family for support and prayers and recommendations on treatment and all about. Someone is diagnosed with Heart Disease or diabetes, they do the same thing. If someone has a Mental Health issue including addiction which i believe is a mental issue, we dont talk about it. You dont say listen, my friend is addicted to heroin, a schizophrenic, i really need your help andsc prayers, do you have a suggestion on where to get treated . Heavy had experience with that . We cant help because we sent the message directly and indirectly. Its not acceptable to ask is something wrong with you . My mother was an addict addicted to nicotine. She started smoking when she was 16, 1948, no idea it was bad for waher. There say is good for her. By 1954 she knew there was a problem and she tried to quit but she couldnt. She tried everything. When she died of lung cancer at 71, when she was diagnosed with it, none of us were permitted to tell people about it. Of course shes going to get lung cancer. We also we are praying for her. Thats what we have to get to and its got to start with the president. On the gun g issue, we know many of the people involved turn out to be people with serious Mental Health issues and we hear many of the times from the stories and are told after its over his oya, he had a problem. We knew he was disturbed. Still the gun from his parents or his friend. Most of the time themselves the Mental Health piece is important and make them understand before they get there they feel better. The challenge is we do have a Second Amended and gives peopled the right to buy and bear arms and its not like we can treat it as if its an inferior amendment like why cant we treat the First Amendment with that . They all need to be treated the same so thats why i think we have to treat mentalwe health enforce the laws we have before we get a new one. We dont do a good job of that. We have people other using guns and we have pas across the country in a revolving door and most criminals dont buy a gun legally. They are criminals and the last piece is this is where hunter biden thing is a real problem and here he is addicted to drugs. He files an application about a firearm and asked you directly and gets his gun but now it carries a ten year sentence. To me it signals to people like democrats are yelling they want more gun laws to make it safer and gino who says you like, you go to jail for tenen years . Senator joe biden. We need to get over the hypocrisy, to. Reasonable things to do controlling guns and we are doing that. The federal gun pass a law, its important to interact with that because democrats scream and yell they want more gun laws but when one off theirs, we will mae an exception there but for the grace of god, hunter biden could have killed himself or somebody else smoking crack and playing with the gun. I want him to recover, i want him to choose life, i think every life is precious, not just nine months in the womb and one hunter biden was depressed young man, that life was precious to. We need to give him the tools he needs to get up. Thats why all of this comes close together because you see these problems intersecting all the time. Mental health, addiction. Lets talk about it. If we talk about it, we have a better chance. You hit the constitution, you are a guy who loves violence and automatic weapons like kill people like that problem will never be resolved ever. The real problem is the Mental Health issues and if we give people hope and diseases like those other ones and they choose to try drugs, its their own action. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer. A guy with a heart attack, we do ask him whyno hes ordering the rear roof i, right . We have to have a conversation with do, we make steps solving that. Everything will be okay and we have 350 million guns in circulation. Even if we stop selling guns tomorrow and that people are not waiting. Appreciate you allowing north carolinians to join us. Ask you a question. Too late. Talking about greg today, i grew up during the reagan era and believe it was the reagan doctrine that led us to overcome and led to the soviet union and i believe president reagan said there is no security, no safety orof evil and i think those wors are as important as during the cold war and we arew seeing evidence for what russia is doing to the neighbors so my question is, how do we keep conservative National Security principal valued our platform said there is no limit between china and russia and because of his atrocities, china is and in this race, i heard all of this garbage spewed in iowa and every president ial candidate and subjectbj themselves to doctor carlson, how small does he think america is he says cities are crumbling yet sending money to ukraine. We can do both and we have done both in the past. Leadership to do itt again. [applause] right now ukrainians have made it clear, they dont want us anywhere near, then what american men and women anywhere near. What they want is a fair chance to beat the russian, chinese and immediate which is who they are fighting. This was the territorial dispute. Territoriall dispute you go home and have your property surveyed bad news and a inches on your neighbors property. That is theis territorial dispu. Lowering this into a free country doing them, it is not a territorial dispute, it is a dictator, america has always stood against the and we always will. [applause] i must admit i am from North Carolina. What are you people doing here . Of come to North Carolina in march, okay . Shes registered. Good, thank you. It is an honor to be here in 2008 and 2010 talking about the deficit, i appreciate. A person has taken on Health Issues and i leave whether it is election, he will be rewarded telling the truth. Ill take it. In 2016, a despicable comment by donald trump when he stood on stage and said john mccain was not at hero, i cannot imagine donaldd trump in prison. Can any body imagine . Since your campaign is a great turnout and i have blessings on you you are going forward,. By the way, for anyone looking for a great question, that was it. [laughter] a fantastic question. Next question, thank you. A lot better now than i was three minutes ago. I hope you are enjoying selfservice gas here. That is theey only state left that does not allow selfserve. Let me tell you why jersey girls dont. Exactly right. A softball shirt on. Jersey girls dont pump gas, they just dont. A first post inoperable, do me a favor, i said so in a question about selfserve gas. Maybe people are ready for it. The pole comes back and my chief consultant, where is the selfserve gas come from . I said i put the question in and was the answer . I cant wait to tell you, sir. He said 80 of new jersey and oppose selfserve gas. I said while, 80 . Thats pretty decisive. He says no, the 2 of new jersey womens oppose selfserve gas. [laughter] so we got selfserve gas, i dont mind selling myself but i dont see my wife stepping foot out of thefo car, selfserve ga, we took her from pennsylvania 35 years ago and she is pampered. I really do appreciate your standing up to donald trump a ad being the only p republican to o so. [applause] really gained by respect for that. T, one thing as someone who entered spanish college, i know many hoops ive had to jump through and especially Human Rights Violations going on in china for years, its always disturbed me but there travel restrictions i cant go with my family on vacation, it seemed hypocritical and i wasem wondering what you o as president in relations with ca and hopefully travel restrictions and during your term. Here is my problem with the cubans and i mean cuban government. They are not laying with the chinese and they are talking military bases in cuba. Not away to get me to feel warmer and cozier toward cubans. You want to have a relationship with the United States and i am willing to listen but not willing to listen as long as they are playing footsie with chinese, its not acceptable so i with us with what you are saying especially given your experience but are not going to send one signal to the chinese but that would be acceptable to the United States, Chinese Military forces 90 miles away from the coast of florida. It can have both. Im not asking cuba and the chinese are. The challenge next 50 years, they put themselves in that crosshair so they remove themselves and decide they want a relationship withsw us, my answer would be no. Ill take on more and then got to go. My name is mary and we are from new jersey as well so the fentanyl crisis, our son this past year have passed away from fentanyl, i have a friend here in South Carolina who lost a son six months ago. I find myself thing if anybody offers you pills, dont take the it is a concern of mine. What have you done about the crisis . What can be done about the fentanyl crisis and those who are dying from it . As i said earlier, i was chairman of donald trump and it was a crisis and we started to make progress before covid and the precursory chemical and we had increased treatment availability and Overdose Deaths and its over everything. Increase the use ofe drugs at e same time we were having problems with china and they ratchet up the precursor chemicals so Historical Context is important for what i want to do. If im elected president birthday, also an executive order the sense National Guard to the border, it will be the introduction to general jeffrey and the drug cartel coming across. I will ask the director of cia to work with the department of defense to go for the plan to take aggressive action the cartel in mexico and i will say to the president of mexico and when to give 90 days to clean thatay out. If you dont clean it up in 90 days and i will avail myself of the tools available for the commanderinchief of the greatest Intelligent Agency and greatest economy in the world and we are going to take care of it one way or another we take care of criminals for our children, third, we need to recognize 110,000 americans die overdose in the single biggest killer of men, 18 to 34. The biggest killer of men in the country 18 to 34 so as for my answer earlier in the crisis as well. We need to have treatment for addiction to opioids and not just opiates like percocet but heroin which is also an opiate and internal which is an artificial opiate. We have treatment available, we have medication assisted treatment on the market now and available as much better than what we had in the 60s and 70s and much more effective to give people who can get off talk therapy but need medication. We need criminal Justice Reform and weha were able to post to prisons in the reason was we stopped just locking up alex thinking putting them in jail was getting them through and then we reopened one of the jails and made it drug treatment presenten so people in the prisn system documented addiction problem to be transferred to the drug treatment and get active treatment, medical treatment and psychological treatment before they leave and give them first prescription and told to get there treatment and what have we seen as a result . We have seen crime and addiction prisons leaving jail because we treated them and they dont care about that much. It is compared to the overall population so we need to broaden this and make people understand that we need to make treatments available. Right now if you are a doctor, you need to get special training in a special license to prescribe education treatment. You dont need special treatment like opioid so explain that to me. The thing that gets us addicted, any can give. What do you think is going to happen . Addiction outpaces treatment by miles so if you want to renew your license or prescribe drugs, take the treatment that is part of the requirement medical license to prescribe in every worker will have the ability to prescribe the incident, not just the addict or. We start to do those things along with talking about these issues and making it more available and we deal withyo ths issue so is felt to be about slowing the supply and auction alcohol what the chinese intended chemical. They are sending chemicals two months volcano will be used to that will kill american citizens. That is an act of war and it needs toet be sent just that way by the president of the United States who can stay awake during the meeting. [laughter] anxiously waiting, how. I am lisa, new jersey mother. Anyway, first, i cant speak with you without asking, do you have a pet . I do not have a pet because our third child is allergic to everything so he has prevented our family from having a pet which his other three siblings remind him of regularly. [laughter] as an independent. One reason why i am here. I know you are mr. Lets make a deal, thats what i read anyway. [laughter] youd rather a deal then no deal. And rather an acceptable deal for no deal, yes. I walked away from a few deals in my life but you want to know why me. [laughter] i swear ive been trying. Somebody who needs left, why should somebody who leans left go right . Who just leans left, not running left. I vote either way. If you are leaning left, in washington right now you cant be happy with joe biden who promises will be in the middle and he runs left. I wont do that to you and here is the thing. I sat here tonight and talk to you about drugs, guns, Social Security. Talk to you about donald trump, about the war in ukraine, china and gave you i think direct answers. I would argue to you the only person i agree with one 100 of the time [laughter] i do not agree. We side with respectable 70s. If we agree 70 of the time, we are doing really well. Those who tell you the truth we know how to get things done and i can guarantee you in my first year as president , something will happen that we didnt talk about tonight. Something will happen that we couldnt have anticipated. Something will happen that we would will not have even thought about. Then what matters the most because you wont know necessarily what im going to do, the character of the person sitting behind that desk. [applause] they will say you were there with them in columbia and i dont know that i chose to make the right decision. So that is the kind of president i promise you i will be because thats the kind of governor i was. I got reelected in 2013 in a state that is 750,000 more democrat than republicans and 61 of the vote, 51 of the hispanic vote in 25 of the africanamerican vote. Iran against the female candidate and that 57 of the female float approach life governor t. I will fight for them and thats it. I think thats why and i swear i didnt set it up my explanation. But you did. Im just saying a lot longer than that in the end. Polls are worth whatever they are worth in every day after that. I am also a realist. I know i am but let me also tell you something eight years ago as i said before, scott walker who jumped out of the race in september and theres one delegate. In 2007 on the democratic side and west 34 points ahead of barack obama and heres what i think we should agree on. We stop predicting the stuff off my in one pull that Shows Hillary clinton in 2016. See if the law stands up here for two hours and take your questions. See if they vote make you write about before hand soy the staff can see which ones they like to answer. See if they will actually call on anybody randomly and then you ask whatever you want to ask and actually answer your question rather than give their stump speech in response to your question. And then when you do all that, decide in your own mind who do i want to be president. Who do i think is the best person to be president. And then work to make that person president. The difference in our country more than any other country of the world is you can do that. You can make the person president you want too be president if you work hard enough to do it and gather others around you to do it. You can hear weve had very unlikely president s. Now, i love history and i am accused at times by my staff of bringing up arcane, historic things to make a point that i spent tomorrow talking about and that people generally get bored with. So im not a going to do that tonight, except for this one thing. Dont worry about what the pulse say. O dont about what the pendants they are going to whimper dont worry about who reports are going to win. Decide who you want to win. And if you want an example of it in history, i suggest to you the election of 1880. My wife is like oh no, hes going to talk about James Garfield. Yes, i dont know if any of you really know James Garfield but James Garfield went to the Republican Convention in 1880 as a senator from ohio and he wasnt there to place the menomination, the name of senatr sherman from ohio to be president. That was his job. He did it appear he went up there and he did it. And then they went through 58 ballots here it makes Kevin Mccarthy look like he was mr. Chairman overnight sp, right . He was desperate 58 ballots there on the 59th ballot someone voted for garfield, and the more people and more people in that convention voted for garfield votr garfield or when theyre asking those people why, they said because we listen to him. Hes the best guy. Garfield stood up and tried to have his name withdrawn purchased at any convention and said, i dont, no. I dont want it. And a photo for him anyway. And he beat ulysses s. Grant for the nomination for president and was elected president in 1880. Because the people in that room and you, you in South Carolina are the people in that room in chicago in 1880. We dont have those closed rooms anymore. The smokefilled room for people get in there and the insight as to who the guy for president is going to be. You do it. You other people in that room. You get to decide, who you want. Thats why im here for thats likely to keep coming back and thats why im going to work for every note i can get here in South Carolina. Tonight is the beginning of that. We have just started to we are from new jersey. We are like gum on the bottom of your shoe. We dont way. I want to be your president. I thank you for your questions and for all of the attention you pay to me tonight and i will be back again i thank you for coming. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] hey, how are you . Spurted good to see you. Good to see you, too. Spirit i cant believe i traveled down here to see people from home. Good to see you. [inaudible] ive got long arms. There you go. All right. Here we go. Yes, sir. [inaudible conversations] thank you. Thank you for your question and thank you for being on a school board. Thank you. Governor, you got my vote, man. Thank you, sir. Spirit we got you a good driver back here. Thanks, governor. Thank you. Thanks for coming. You got my vote. Full support. Thank you. Ready . One, two, three. Good luck to you. Thanks very much. Appreciate that. [inaudible] i saw you ten years ago and i said thats going to be our president. Got it. Thank you, peter appreciate you. Any time. I was like cowboys or giants . Cowboys, baby. Good luck. How does president kristi saud . How are you . Thank you. Thats even better. Jersey and the house. [inaudible] because we got to win. We got to bring everybody altogether. Good luck. Very nice to meet you. Jersey girl here. [inaudible conversations] how are you, man . Good, good. Thanks for coming. [inaudible] i dont know the answer to that. I wanted to ask you about it. I wouldve told you i dont know, then we would have to figure it out. Icing campaigns already do that. Thank you so much for coming to we enjoyed it. I love your middleoftheroad attitude about everything and im glad thats right, thats right. If we dont fight it now were going to fight it later. Thats right. Thank you. [inaudible] if it happens again desperate i wish you luck. A wonderful job on the cnn panel. Thank you. Very impressive. Thank you very much. Im glad to see you back again. Hang in there. I will, thank you. Do you want to get in there, to . Just. Thats all right. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] give them hell in the debate. You bet i will. I just wanted to know about the gas prices. Burning the oral back on. We have enough not only for ourselves but other parts of the world and were not doing it. Weve got to reverse that. Because of who is in office. You got it. God bless america. You got it. Are you really coming up to the charlotte area . Im from greenville. Ultimately we were there when donald trump had his big rally, 50,000 people according to the police chief spirit i dont buy that. If you are able to stand on the stage what would you tell the supporters . The exact same thing is that you may. Theres not too versions of the cooper when he gets up he lies to those people. He says im getting indicted for you. What the hell is that . He did this stuff. He got himself in this and now he wants to have the American People pay for it. So i wouldnt say anything different whether i was in pickens or whether i here in columbia. People deserve the truth and they should have a president who gives them results. The life and he fails. Would you be willing to sign that states if you are able to get up on the stage . Sure, yet. Ill take it every bit as serious as he took it in 2016. You mentioned the border. Were in the crisis here in South Carolina. A lot of the sheriffs sign for coming in from the port of entry. What is your ultimate plan to shut off the border . You mentioned Donald Trumps lack of finishing off the board so what is your plan to finish it . Its going to take a while unlike when he lies about it, ill tell you the truth, it will take about thats what is the first day i would send the National Guard down there to interdict fentanyl at the southern border. The National Guard would be activated from and one of e border states and send National Guard from other states as well to do the very best we can to keep as much of it out as we could. Senator Lindsey Graham has suggested a federal ban on abortion of 18 weeks to would you be willing to sign a federal ban . I think lindsay forgot will be argued for 50 years but for 50 years we argued this is a state issue found that each thas a right to make a decision on this. They do and they should. The tab should not interfere until every state has an opportunity to weigh in and see what they think the rules and laws should be at that if theres a National Consensus then we should consider a federal act but not until everything gets the chance to get lindsay forgot what he argued for years ago but i havent. Former governor nikki haley has been pushing and hitting on china repeatedly. As a former ambassador for whatt qualifies you more to take on china poster which is done so at the International Stage . Well, i mean, with all due respect to governor haley, having debates on the floor of the u. N. Is not negotiating deals, its not enforcing the law which is what ive done my entire career. I have a lot of respect for her and i think shes great but make judgments based on that and also what weve done. I think my record proves to be a lot stronger and tougher and more effective than she would be. [inaudible] out fair for debates like ours that which is to make sure that i naz conversant in the issues as i can be so i can directly answer the questions that are raised. And you know what donald trump and i hope he has of the s to show up i hope he is not a coward that runs away from defending his record and exposing himself to the Republican Party voters. In his record is a great and he such a great debater then he shouldnt be worried about facing the at all but i think hes scared. Statebystate contest, South Carolina President Trump is very popular why do you think you can break through where work,a partner . Campaigns matter. Telling the truth matters. All over going to do so by the pulse lets just say he won the election. Purified, good, crop. Thats not the way it works. If we took that ten years ago jeb bush wouldve one South Carolina. How much are you staffing in South Carolina . Were going to spend as much time in South Carolina as we do in New Hampshire, which is a lot. [inaudible] in america you dont get to vote for he want to. You get to vote for who was electric they chose was joe biden and donald trump here in 2020 i thought donald trump was a better choice to match horribly flawed choices but the better choice to but then we spent time cutting our democracy at 2 30 a. M. From each room of the white house, i was done i was done. Thats why. It was a choice people think you sit on the sidelines that i do want to sit on the sidelines for him to participate and it felt like i needed to make a choice for the country and i did. , ask a question real quick . On strategy some of the harshest critics will say okay enough about trump, how are you going to separate yourself from him . Look, if you listen for two hours tonight i spoke a lot about real issues that people are really concerned about the what happened is with all due respect all of you you guys work what did i say about trump . And you dont report on the other so i set the people safe might regularly talk about complex finally have to explain. I spent an hour 15 minutes of the two hours talking about everything other than truck and you guys dont report it. So if you want candidates to talk more about that stuff been reported and will, all right . Thanks guys. Thank you. He was raised right. Well i going . I have to get my jacket. Ill get your jacket. [inaudible] i didnt recognize you how are you . Good. Mary pat. Where did my wife go . My personal number. Hey, is mary pat back there . Could you have her come out for a second . I want you to say hello to somebody. Remember less . Yes. Nice to see you, les. Wow. [inaudible] im going to let you know, absolutely. Thank you, brother. So good to see you, les appear. Thank you for running and saying things that need to be said. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. You can finish watching this on a cspan mail app. We take you live now to