Transcripts For CSPAN3 Conservative Political Action Conference Day 2 20150227

Based on sfaemfamily alone integratets got to be based on sommer it and family contribution. That has to be dealt with as well. Yet you have 12 to 20 Million People in this country that have lived here for more than a decade, otherwise havent violated the laws. I get all that. What ive learned is you cant even have a conversation about that until people believe and know not just believe but its proven to them that futile Legal Immigration will be controlled. That is the single biggest lesson of the last two years. I think everybody in this room would agree with this. Whenever there is a budget deal made and they talk about tax increases and were going to have spending cuts. You get the tax increase on day one and then the spending cuts ten years later never happen. Yes. Isnt it the same thing with immigration . That was the strongest argument made against the bill, and its proven to be true because the president once, but not twice, has basically said by executive order i wont violate the lauchltw. I think the fear of people is that we have to deal with people who are here illegally or overstay their visas. But isnt the real answer its sort of like getting the spending cuts up front, secure the border first . The only way forward is you cant just tell people were going to secure the border were going to verify, you have to do it. They have to see it they have to see it working and then theyll have a reasonable conversation with you about the other parts. But they dont even want to talk about that until thats been done first. Whats happened over the last two years the migratory cost over the summer thats even more true than ever. You are a twoterm senator in the great state of florida. Yauchlteah. We have a man in the white house who was a oneterm senator, had some bizarre times in the white house if you havent heard me talk about it but why do you want to be president of the United States . I havent made that decision yet, sean but good job trying to get me to admit to it. What i said was absolutely true, the only reason why i want to be in Public Service is because i believe i owe a debt to america i will never be able to repay. We all benefit. Some people dont think that way, but i certainly feel that way, and i think everybody in this room feels that way. [ applause ] and to me, for someone who has literally seen my familys entire destiny altered by the fact that america happened to be 90 miles from cuba instead of some other country, not only do i have to pay that back in some way, i have to make sure others can do it. I dont want my kids to ask me how come you got to grow up in the greatest country in the world but we got to grow up in a country thats diminished. So i have to decide what is right at this time in my life. You said you might not necessarily run for president or the u. S. Senate but you dont have to make that decision until march or april may i think. If you believe you should run for president , and you believe thats the best place for you in america, thats what you run for. I dont think you think about whats my strategy whats my plan b. The truth is i dont want to be in politics the rest of my life. I want to do other things. Like maybe own an nfl team or something. I would have to sell a lot of books for that. One of the most pressing problems the world faces right now, we have seen mass beheadings we have seen people burned alive. We have a president that says the Islamic States are not islamic were not presbyterian. No, were not. You mentioned your speech toward the Prime Minister of israel. If you did become president , how would you deal with this crisis of worldwide terrorism, a group that wants to raise the flag of islam in the white house, and meet all of us in new york . How would we deal with them . Two separate points i would make on that. First, understand why the president has not put in place a military strategy to defeat isis. If we wanted to defeat them militarily, we could do it. He doesnt want to upset iran. In his mind, this deal with iran is going to be the obamacare of the second term and he doesnt want them sending military to the region because they think the region belongs to them. They are an islamic sunni group. They need to be defeated on the ground with a sunni military force with the United States in the air, the jordanians, the e eue, the kurds. Put together u. S. Operation support and provide the Logistical Support military support and you will wipe isis out. [ applause ] let me ask you, were running out of time. If you were elected president quickly, what would be the top five agenda items that you would push hardest for in your first 100 days. The three things we need to do, the first is we need to have a healthy economy. Tax reform regulatory reform, repeal and replace obamacare balance our budget. The second is we have to give people the skills they need for the 21st century totally revolutionized the way we pay for Higher Education in this country. Nobody should be forced to get a fouryear degree for a highpaying job. There are millions of jobs out there and we should enable people to access the jobs they need. Plus, in American Foreign policy, that tells the world very clearly it is bad to be our enemy and good to be our friend. Were running out of time. This is what we call our lightning round. Abortion. Im pro life. Its as simple as that. Gay marriage. I believe marriage is between one man and one woman. Thats what its been for thousands of years and its served our people well. Colorado marijuana legalization. Im against the legalization of marijuana. Should every lawabiding american even in states that have restrictive gun laws like new york, should they have the right to carry a weapon . Absolutely. The only people who dont care about gun laws are criminals. [ applause ] im going to throw out a couple names to you. Hillary clinton. Yesterday. [ applause ] bill clinton. Whats the next one . Really yesterday. Barack obama. Failed. Last question. You talked about your love for america and how we all, really, we received so much more than we could ever pay back. Explain, if if you believe in american exceptionalism and why. I dont know if people realize, but in every other society in Human History your future is decided by what your parents did before you. If your parents were rich if they were famous if they were politically connected, if they could pick up the phone and find you your first job you were set. If they couldnt you were stuck, no matter how hard you worked, no matter how hard you tried. The fact that a son of a bartender and a woman who worked in a hotel are sitting on the stage with you today, thats why america is special. Senator marco rubio, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. Please welcome republican rick perry. Thank you. I come here today to speak plainly about the times that we live in. At no time, at no time in the last 25 years has the future been more uncertain and the world more dangerous than it is today. On three points we must be clear. First, our country has entered a time of testing, and our Political Leadership is failing the test. Yes the American People see a president who bows to Political Correctness, in denial of the threats that we face, making grave miscalculations that make the world less safe. Now, this administrations incompetence in iraq and syria have allowed the emergence of isis. Theyre using american tanks, theyre using american weapons, and isis began taking cities that just a few years ago were secured by american blood. Now, lets be very, very clear about who isis is, what they represent. They are a religious movement that seeks to take the world back to the 7th century. Their ames are apocalyptic. They mean to cleanse the world not just the christians and jews, but of muslims who disagree with their extreme idealogy. And it is their stated vow to kill as Many Americans as possible. Its time, it is time for the American People to hear the truth. The president declared in the state of the union that the advance of isis has been stopped, and that is simply not true. He says that isis is a religious movement. Again, hes simply wrong. To deny the fundamental religious nature of the threat and to downplay the seriousness of it is naive it is dangerous and it is misguided. Isis represents the worst threat to freedom since communism. If egypt and jordan recognize that they are at war with radical islam isnt it about time our president proclaimed the same . [ applause ] we didnt start this war, nor did we choose it, but we will have the will to finish it. [ applause ] let me state another obvious fact about the middle east. It is not in the interest of peace and security of the free world that iran be allowed to develop Nuclear Weapons. [ applause ] reports concerning this bilateral negotiation between the United States and iran indicate a deal on the table would allow iran to develop Nuclear Power after a certain number of years if they live up to certain treaty obligations. I believe it is fundamentally dangerous to grant Irans Nuclear ambitions diplomatic cover. Our discussions with iran should be governed by two, nonnegotiable principals. Number one is iran should not be allowed to develop Nuclear Weapons, period. [ applause ] and number two, israel has the right to exist as a jewish state. [ cheers and applause ] amen. Its time. Its time we stood with the most vibrant democracy in the middle east. The administrations policy of isolating israel must stop. Watching all of this unfold is the president of russia. Hes been watching as our president drew a line, a red line in syria that was crossed without consequence. And then this russian president watches our president cancel plans to deploy Missile Systems in poland and the czech republic. And it was against this backdrop of weakness and empty words that putin entered ukraine. And it was those conditions that allowed him to negotiate a onesided cease fire at minsk with no real consequences. Heres the simple truth about our Foreign Policy. Our allies doubt us and our adversaries are all too willing to test us. No one should be surprised. No one should be surprised that dictators like assad would cross the president s red line because he knows the president wont even defend the line that separates our nation from mexico. [ applause ] there arent any real consequences. There are no real consequences when dictators and adversaries defy america and this must change. For the world to be safer, america must be stronger. And for america to be safer, our border must be secure. Drug cartels, transnational gangs, they smuggle drugs and weapons and people. They are a clear and present danger to the health and the safety of all americans. Any conversation any conversation about comprehensive Immigration Reform must begin with comprehensive border security. [ applause ] and thats exactly why. Thats exactly why last summer i told the president , looked him right in the eye and said if you will not secure the border between texas and mexico, texas will. [ cheers and applause ] so heres the second point. And i want to be very clear today. The conservative Movement Must be a great agent of reform. To lead this country, we must offer a vision of change. Our nation is 18 trillion dollars in debt. So every agency of government every department out there they must account for every dime that they spend. For the first time in American History, a generation of leaders is on the verge of breaking the social compact with the next generation. And that is to leave a better country and with greater opportunity than the way we found it. With debt the size of our gdp our nations involved with generational theft. [ applause ] there are fewer of us that believe in the American Dream than any time in the last 20 years. For middle class americans opportunity and security has been replaced with anxiety and worry, out of pocket health care costs, housing, college tuition. Theyve all gone up faster than wages. Student debt is at an alltime high and this has to change. [ applause ] it is time. It is time to restore hope and opportunity to the middle class americans out there. And we can start with our tax code. Weve got the highest Corporate Tax rate in the western world and it is time to lower that Corporate Tax rate to lift up middle class wages we can do this it is time to provide easier access to credit for small businesses. These lending reforms are squeezing our Community Banks and our small businesses. It is time to bring jobs and prosperity to main street not just wall street. [ applause ] and its time. Its time to stop this overregulation by runaway federal agencies. You realize that regulatory cost, this regulatory cost hits American Families for about 15,000 a year. Thats the highest cost on your budget on anything other than housing. Its no surprise, though. Its no surprise that when one out of five American Children are on food stamps because one out of ten American Workers are either unemployed underemployed or just so discouraged they quit looking for work. Im going to say this quite plainly. The Unemployment Rate is a sham. It leaves millions of American Workers uncounted. And if the Republican Party doesnt take a stand for these uncounted americans, who will . [ applause ] the answer is not to expand the welfare state, its to build the freedom state. And i happen to know it can happen because we did it in my home state. And our formula was simple. You controlled the taxes and the spending, you provide smart regulations regulations, you develop an educated work force and you stop Lawsuit Abuse at the courthouse. [ applause ] in my 14 years as governor we helped to create almost onethird of all the private sector jobs in america. In the last seven years in the last seven years we created 1. 4 million jobs. You take those jobs out of the equation minus those jobs created in texas this country lost a quarter of a million jobs. Its time to bring economic revival to every state in america with policies that limit government instead of expanding it. [ applause ] heres the third point. Ive never been more certain than i am today that americas best days remain in front of us. The weakness and incompetence of our government shouldnt be confused with the strength, the in ingenuity and the idealism of the American People. Our experienced and republican form of government its too durable to be sidetracked by one confused administration. Think about it, weve survived worse. We had a civil war in this country, we had two world wars we had a great depression. We even survived jimmy carter we will survive the obama years, too. [ cheers and applause ] there is nothing wrong with america that cannot be fixed with new leadership. You see, i see an america where a skilled worker can find a job, where wages are on the rise and freedom is on the march. An america where opportunity is the birthright of all, not dispensed by a government to a few select ones. It is time. It is time for america to lead the world. Its time to stand with our allies. Its time to pursue an america worthy of our founders ideas. Its time that we build an america where our citizens and their children can dream again. So lets roll up our sleeves lets go to work and lets revive this great nation again. God bless you thank you for being with us here today. [ cheers and applause ] thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being with us. Governor perry, we have a few questions for you, if you dont mind. There you are. Its a pleasure to have you here. Glad youre speaking so clearly. That was truly incredible. Thank you. A few questions weve gotten on twitter, what would you do in the white house about ilLegal Immigration . Well, obviously, addressing this, ive had a little bit more than just a talk about it. Ive had to deal with it. And i think thats one of the major issues that weve got with washington and congress is that they talk. They talk and people literally die. Because weve had to deal with this issue last summer when there were literally tens of thousands of individuals showing up, some of them unaccompanied mineors on that southern border. I had to make a decision on how to deal with that. Because not only my state but the country was being impacted by it. And the president asked me to come and meet with him on an airport ramp, and i told him i would be glad to do it mr. President , but i want to meet with you and talk to you about this issue of our border. We met and it became abundantly clear to me that he was not going to address this issue. Thats when i told him, i said mr. President , if you dont secure this border texas will, and thats exactly what we did. We sent the National Guard there to secure the border. And thats the point. If you do not secure the border first, you cant have a conversation about Immigration Reform. Thats just a fact. You dont trust washington to deal with this, i dont trust washington to deal with this until they secure the border. And we know how to do this. We can show them how to do it. Weve had a 74 decrease in the number of apprehensions in that 150mile region of the border by deploying our National Guard, by putting the Law Enforcement there. I will suggest one more thing, and that is Aviation Assets that look down 24 7, give us the information with Fast Response teams and we can secure the border. At at that particular point in time. Then you have the conversation about how to deal with this entire immigration issue. There are a lot of interesting ideas on the table out there but not until we secure the border first. [ applause ] thank you, governor perry. There is lots of talk of Climate Change. How would you, as u. S. President if you were to run how would you secure Americas Energy future . Let me address this issue. I think there are some good examples of how to deal with our environment. As a matter of fact, during the last 14 years, texas added 5. 6 Million People to its population roles, 1. 4 million jobs created in that sevenyear period of time 07 to 14. 5. 6 Million People, thats a lot of cars on the roads in texas. During that same period of time using thoughtful and incentivebased creations, we reduced our Carbon Monoxide levels, which by the way, is a real pollutant. Nitrous oxide levels were down by 16. 2 ozone levels down by 15 , and our co2 levels were down whether you believe in this whole concept of Climate Change or not co2 levels were down by 9 in that state. Isnt that the goal of what we were working towards . And the point is you can have job creation and you can make your environment better. And that ought to be the role of those 50 states, of being able to put policies into place incentivebased policies. We put policies in place that helped remove old, dirty burning diesel engines from the fleets. We were able to transition our electrical power system into natural gas burning. That ought to be our goal in this country, and it all starts with energy policy. Open up the xl pipeline. Create jobs. That ought to be what were working on in this country from the standpoint of creating the jobs and making america more energy secure. Thank you governor perry. We appreciate you speaking so plainly on this and thank you for coming today. Thank you. God bless you all. The. The American People are a lot smarter than the news gives them credit for. They know the difference between spin and news. We work with 100 policy experts here at the Heritage Foundation who cover a range of issues. What makes the daily signal unique is our commitment to delivering the news in a fair, accurate and trustworthy manner. Since the daily signal has begun, we went to where the action is. Reporting from the scene in texas, this is josh siegal. Right now were here at the Supreme Court. Weve worked with veteran Investigative Reporter cheryl attkisson. Ive had more communication here than ive had in the past couple years at my other job. We want to be on the cutting edge. Theyve been willing to let the stories tell themselves and go in whatever direction the stories go. Its not a question whether we can drive the media narrative. Its only the question of whether we have the courage to capitalize on the opportunity right in front of us. That is what the daily signal is. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome president of the Media Research center and chairman of for america, brent bozell. Good morning, cpac let me first thank all the organizers of cpac this year. I think theyve done a terrific job. What do you think . [ applause ] let me get right to my talk. Something happened last summer where most people werent looking. The democrats quietly introduced Senate Joint Resolution 19 to amend the First Amendment. Had it passed it would have Given Congress incredible thu kredcredible new powers to limit public speech. It would have Given Congress the power to regulate, even to prohibit movies, Even Television shows of a political nature that might influence elections. Books deemed too political could be banned as might be political editorials and newspapers. Msnbc, cnn, fox all that political commentary. That might be construed as a corporate contribution and might have been forbidden as well. What about flyers distributed in the parking lots . Bumper stickers . All are forms of communication all that could have been controlled by the state. This unthinkable outrage didnt pass, but Something Else didnt pass, either. Senator ted cruz offered his solution, the First Amendment. Every single democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee voted against it. Something terrible is happening to our country. The radical left now controls most lovers of political and cultural power and is using both in a Relentless Campaign to destroy the last messages of freedom in america. Tyranny is knocking on our door. Consider, lois lerner and who knows what other officials in the Obama Administration illegallily used the irs the most feared arm of the federal government to harass and even prosecute individuals. They were illegally coordinating these individuals with the department of justice, the sec and who knows what other agencies. To cover up evidence they destroyed government property. They lied at the white house and they committed perjury on capitol hill. Watergate was a political paper cup by comparison. The radicals have shown their fangs. They will do anything using any means at their disposal legal or otherwise to control our very freedom of speech. Ponder this carefully. When the state uses its power to destroy any political opposition spying on and silencing through threats and criminal prosecution is it all that different from the east german stazi . Talk radio is arguably the strongest weapon in the arsenal so the radicals want it destroyed. They first tried to revive the fairness doctrine which, if enacted, would have put this industry out of business. When that effort was derailed, they returned with localism which rush labeled the back door to the fairness doctrine. The federal Communications Commission and the sec is out of control in their ability to control free speech. Last summer it was making quiet preparations to put a federal monitor in every newsroom to assess stations news philosophy and the process by which stories are selected. This shocking abuse of Governmental Authority was exposed and stopped but by no means have the radicals stopped. As i speak these words, the Obama Administration is making its play for the internet. Its quietly working to have a federal takeover of the infrastructure of delivering the internet. Through net neutrality, its giving government control of the internet forcing it to comply by federal regulations. But perhaps most disturbing and underreported is this. The radicals want political speech on the internet to be declared political activity. As such, through yet another abusive arm of government, this time the federal elections commission, the federal government would actually decide what is and isnt acceptable as free speech on the internet . In the United States of america. Now, if governor by fiat doesnt work, there are other ways for them to achieve results. They go personal. But radicals have set their sights on Corporate America to silence it with a campaign of relentless personal harassment. The founder of bazilla donated 1,000 to a campaign to preserve the definition of marriage. In turn, left wing ajgitator srksagitators dubed them to be haters. In short order ike was forced out of his own party for defending marriage. They would have succeeded had the Prolife Movement not risen to his defense. Religious groups are regularly targeted. The Regulatory Exchange council developed model legislation for the stand your ground policy. Then Trayvon Martin was killed. The radicals saw the opportunity and they pounced. They threatened to associate alex corporate donors with the policies they declared had resulted in murder. In short order it worked. The suits at wendys mcdonalds, pepsi cola cocacola, among others, canceled their support and headed for the tall grass. Characterization is a powerful weapon with a ruthless Movement Without honor. Ask rush limbaugh. The radicals know if they can scare off most advertisers, they can knock them off the air. Then its only a matter of time before all conservative talk radio is canceled by the nervous nellie station managers. But how to do it . Their dishonesty time and again astonishes. In 2007 they declared that rush had labeled as phony soldiers who rose to meet it. Rush humiliated his foes, but it did not deter them until the means justify the means. Last september they were back again with the parsing, again with the selective editing. Now they accuse him of condoning violence releasing hundreds of thousands of tweets mercilessly, and rush conducted his own examination and concluded it was no more than 11 members of the underwear brigade using false identities and advanced Digital Technology to project a National Outrage that was as fabricated as the accusation. The radicals have set their sights on silencing cultural conservatives in hollywood. Brother david and Justice Bingham were set to launch a new series on the hgtv network. Then david made a fatal mistake during an interview. In leviticus it says death is the consequence for social sin. However, jesus came and took the consequence of that sin upon himself on the cross. He had quoted scripture. The radical left has its own church and its own dogma and this was a mortal sin. How dare you allow christian hate hatemongers on your network and they canceled the show. The dynasty who will be gracing the stage this morning made public assessments on his faith. Same public assault, but i guess it pays to be the star of the most popular show on television. His fans exploded and after a brief innocuous suspension, he was reinstated. Hollywood. No industry more radically preechz tolerance while striving for a censorship. Friends of abes was formed several years ago to espouse in hollywood. Dozens, maybe hundreds of others remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. The radicals have set their sights on academia silencing conservative voices all over america. In a recent survey of 409 universities, 62 now have restrictive codes or policies that serve to stifle free speech. At vanderbilt university, a Christian News application to organize on campus was deferred, because its rules stated a member must hold christian beliefs. At university of carolina chapel hill, a Christian Group came on fire from legislation who dismissed a student from its ranks who wasnt christian. A Student Newspaper was forced to drop its name, the bullet because it propagatesed violence. At Drake University analysts were destroyed. What sin had they committed in this paper had feature aid prolife ad. At university of massachusetts in amherst, the conservative newspaper was stolen. When conservative students protested, the university responded as only a university from massachusetts would the conservative paper was banned from campus. At university of minnesota, a professor encourages students to destroy all copies of the conservative papers. At oregon state, the university had to pay 100,000 in legal fees after University Officials admitted they junked conservative papers. At university of california, two sweet, petite High School Girls prolife were physically attacked by a thuggish professor with their prolife science destroyed while the professor and their aides taunted them. On many college campuses, conservatives live in fear. The radicals have set their sights on christianity itself. The new Mexico Human Rights Commission levied a 6600 fine against a woman after she declined to photograph a lesbian commitment ceremony. In oregon, the owners of a christian bakery refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple and are facing fines in excess of 150,000. In idaho two christian ministers who own a wedding chapel were ordered to perform samesex weddings or face jail time, potentially more than three years as well as a 1,000 fine for each day of noncompliance. In houston, the outspoken lesbian mayor ordered city attorneys to issue subpoenas to local pastors demanding they surrender any speeches, writings or certainly onsermons on sexuality. They have preached left wing politics for decades. But when conservative radicals tried to do this on sunday look what happened. The radical group sued. Not the pastors, mind you, but the irs for not adequately prosecuting the pastors. The irs dutyacquiesced, and they monitored them for content. They hired bodyguards for their protection. In america the website of the radical Group Includes what they call a hate map, pinpointing the jewish radicalizations of prolife organizations. The militant who visited that site decided to attack the Research Council for its support of chickfila. He entered the lobby, pulled it gun and shot an fcc Security Guard who managed to disarm him. He was carrying a bag of chickfila sandwiches. He admitted he was going to kill as many sec employees as possible and place a sandwich next to them. In Seattle Columbus day has been officially canceled and replaced with Indigenous Peoples day. In denver troublemakers that move on organize mass protests against School Board Members for promoting patriotism in the public school. History books are being rewritten to erase americas grounding in the Judeo Christian ethic. Americas role as leader of the free world and the very idea of american exceptionalism. The reagan tax cuts caused the reagan deficits. His disdain for homosexuals resulted in the aids epidemic. As for reagan ending the cold war, what pure nonsense. Bill clinton declared this, gorbachev is showing the west that radicalism isnt what it used to be. Whats more it never was. Theyre teaching children that George Washington was no different than palestinian terrorists and Thomas Jefferson should be defined as a hypocrite for writing the declaration of independence while he owned slaves. It labels those who fought in the revolutionary war american mobs and faced the tea party too radical for some. If a sds bomber kills several dozen israeli teenagers in an israeli restaurant is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli Government policies and army actions . David roberts writes for the radical left wing blog grist. He doesnt much care for conservatives who question Global Warming. When weve finally gotten serious about Global Warming he writes we should have war crimes for these bastards some form of nuremburg. Its come to this. There is only one position thats permissible in the debate. There is only one acceptable position on gay rights. Freedom is oppression morality and immorality, and the Washington Redskins is hate speech. We can no longer trust god in our coins, pray in our schools or keep a crucifix uncovered when the president is speaking in front of it. Our police is no longer representative, theyre offensive. What is hateful should be criminalized. Do not believe i exaggerate. National surveys show that 51 of democrats now support that. Webster defines fascism as a tendency toward or actual exercise in strong autocratic or dictatorial control. Ladies and gentlemen, we know this to be true. So it begs the question, what is our response . Is it to surrender to the fascists . Perhaps only gradually . Certainly grudgingly, but ultimately surrender nonetheless . Weve been retreating for decades. Do we accept a new reality of a transformed society where freedom is an ever more distant memory . Is that your gift to your progeny after so many millions of men and women gave of their blood and their very lives to give you the gift of the free society in the history of man. No, by god tell me its not. I do not ask you to defend yourself well and retreat. I ask you to stop the retreat turn around and face the sound of the guns. Its time for us to be intolerant. Its time to stop tolerating and remove from office those men and women of either Political Party who will not fight boldly and unequivocally to restore freedom. [ cheers and applause ] its time to stop tolerating those who believe government is by and for the thousands of lobbyists and professional consultants prowling the halls of government and feasting on our libertyies like rats. Do not tolerate fascist academia. Its so easy to end that scourge. Do not tolerate the sensors, do not tolerate the sensors in the news or entertainment media. Give noise to your beliefs loudly cheerfully, proudly, defiantly. Watch the american embrace you. Do not tolerate the attacks on conservative leaders. Take to the rooftops and champion them. Look for every opportunity to be politically correct. Drive those radicals crazy. Make a vow this december everywhere you go with everyone you meet. It will not be a happy holiday. It will be merry christmas. [ cheers and applause ] we have weapons. We have weapons. We can communicate with millions of americans through the power of technology. Use those weapons. Tell your story. Tell our story. Tell them what america once was, what america should be and what america will be. Our founders will be vindicated. Your progeny will be grateful and the almighty, i think will be well pleased. God bless you and god bless america. You know one of the Amazing Things about the Leadership Institute is it went on for 30some odd years and i understand over close to 150,000 kids have gone through this. In our office we actually have six of our staff who have come out of the Leadership Institute. My former chief of staff was actually with the Leadership Institute and worked with closely with them for many years. And i think whats great about the Leadership Institute is that it does something really no one else is doing. There are think tanks in town. There are conservative and libertarian think tanks and people who believe in the free market. Theres really nobody training the next generation of people who will be the leaders of our country. So im amazed not only here in washington but as i travel throughout the United States that i meet kids who came out of the Leadership Institute. To me its an amazing thing and its a genius for the idea. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to our first debate of the day. Privacy versus security. Oh im im thinking good morning, everybody. It is a great pleasure, a great honor to be with you this morning. Were going to i think, very fortunate to listen to the voices of two leading advocates of the opposing viewpoints in the nexus between National Security and constitutional rights. We are joined this morning by general Michael Hayden who is without question [ applause ] one of this nations most distinguished and longserving Public Servants. And, amongst all of his other duties he is also served the nation as the director of the cia, and the nsa. Which gives him some standing for this discussion today. And on my right my good friend and colleague, judge andrew napolitano. [ applause ] judge napolitano a former superior court judge of the great state of new jersey, in which we both have the good fortune to live, im saying that only partially tongue in cheek at tax time, certainly. And a senior, senior judicial analyst, a refer to him as executive senior judicial analyst for fox news. Great to have both of these gentlemen with us. [ applause ] were going to follow the format of presentations from each of them for a few moments about their views. Then were going to begin a discussion hell ask questions of each beginning with judge napolitano. Well follow up with each for an opportunity to rebut or agree passionately with the other as the case may be. With no further ado, judge napolitano. Thank you, lou. Thank you, good morning. I was in 1973, before most of you were born i was present at the first cpac in the Madison Hotel in downtown washington, d. C. There were 25 people there. One of whom was a guy named ronald reagan. When i speak on privacy and security i often start out like this. I want everybody to take their blackberry, iphone android, whatever you have in your pocket, and turn it on, because i want president obama and the nsa to be able to hear everything im about to tell you. Of course this is not a laughing matter. Because they will hear everything im about to tell you whether you turn this on or not. Because they have the ability to turn this on without you knowing about it. Without going to a judge and getting a court order for your cell phone, they can listen to everything you say, and Read Everything you write. How did we get there . My gosh, we have the Fourth Amendment to the constitution of the United States, to protect the quintessentially american right of the right to be left alone. The reason the reason we have this amendment is because the framers and the founders found intolerable the concept of the british use of general warrants. A general warrant was an order from a secret court in london, authorizing the bearer of the warrant to search where he wanted, and to seize whatever he found. We fought a revolution so that general warrants would not come in here and we wrote a constitution so that the new government here could not do us what the british had done to us as colonists. And in order to assure that we put the Fourth Amendment in the constitution. Which says, you have the right to be left alone. In your persons, houses, papers, and effects. And if the government needs to assault your privacy in your persons, houses, papers and effects, it must go to a judge and present evidence of probable cause about you. Not about everybody in your zip code or your area code, but about you. Quote, specifically describing a place to be searched or the person to be seized. This applies whenever the government wants to search or seize. Whether its for criminal purposes, tax purposes, intelligence purposes, or whether because they just want to know what you are doing. Fast forward to today. The secret courts that our forefathers fought against in the revolution are here in washington, d. C. So secret that the judges on the courts have been sworn to secrecy. So secret that the judges on the courts are not permitted to keep copies of their own records. So secret that if you knew about it you would say this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, because these are general warrants that authorize the nsa to listen wherever they want, and take copies of the contents of whatever they listen to. Weve come 180 degrees from fighting a war against those who would violate with impunity our right to be left alone to hiring Public Servants who will do that to us. We are in a twilight era. Where freedom is diminishing. Because with the exception of people in this room, there is very little outrage. No matter how grievous the violation constitutional liberty, if there is no outrage, the government will continue to do it. General hayden will tell you, and in my view general hayden is a patriot, whose entire career has been devoted to defending the country. [ applause ] general hayden will tell you when he speaks that the line between privacy and security can be moved by him. Not by the court but by him or whoever his successor is in the nsa. There is no principle of law there is no constitutional principle, there is no security ruling that moves that line. Because your right to be left alone is a natural and personal right. Only you can give it up. The majority cannot take it away from you and certainly american spies cannot take it away from you. [ applause ] i hope after this morning youll be outraged. General hayden. Its beginning to feel like an away game for me here. If nsa were doing, if nsa were even capable of doing what the judge has just outlined for you, we wouldnt be having a debate here today. There would be nothing to argue about. Lets talk about reality. Lets talk about facts. The judge is an unrelenting libertarian. [ applause ] so am i. And im an unrelenting libertarian whos also responsible for four decades of his life for another important part of that document. The part that says provide for the common defense. Lets talk about specifics. Right after 9 11, congress of the United States had something called a joint inquiry commission. It was a combined house senate, Intelligence Committee inquiry into what went wrong on 9 11. One of the most telling aspects of the document they came out with, we had a shorthand called jip report that nsa, i was the head at the time nsa was far too conservative, far too conservative when it came to the most important kind of terrorist communications there could be. Terrorist communications one end of which was in the United States. So our charge from your elected representatives, actually from the president , was be better able to respond to that kind of threat threat. Now there were tools available to us but we understood the constitution and so we looked for the gentlest approach possible. The one that would squeeze american privacy the least in terms of responding to that particular charge. How do you detect terrorist communication S Communications entering or leaving the homeland . Because after all wed just been attacked from the homeland. We hit upon metadata. Defined as information about a communication. A call to from, when, how long. Despite what the judge said about assistance and constitutional protection the Controlling Legal Authority with regard to metadata is smith versus maryland, 1979, in which the Supreme Court held 53 that metadata is not constitutionally protected. And we therefore struck upon metadata again as the gentlist way in which we could balance the two demands of our constitution. Your security, and your liberty. Look there were other tools available. We were accused of using some of these other tools. The judge came close to accusing us of those other tools just a few minutes ago. We were accused of having a driftnet over deer born, michigan or freemont, california, and sucking up the content of phone calls of american citizens and then searching those phone calls for key word searches looking for words like bomb and things like that. That never happened. We never got the content. By the way, we never even collected the metadata. There were no metaphorical alligator clips on some metaphorical wires here. We actually got the billing records. The billing records of large telecommunication carriers in the United States. So those who claim they i know when something is of interest you can click on that number and see the content, that just doesnt violate the laws of the United States. That would violate the laws of physics. There is nothing there that allows that to take place. So we gather this metadata. We put it in a large depository. Truth in lending, judge, its big. All right . Practically speaking its a record of calls made within and between the United States and elsewhere over years. And its billions, if not trillions, of records. But now what happens to them . If you use a phrase thats probably not popular around here we put them in a lock box. And we access this lock box only very strict circumstances. We have to have a reasonable articulable suspicion judge not quite probable cause. Reasonable articulable suspicion that we have a phone number associated with terrorism. A foreign phone number. So imagine, if you will, we roll up a safe house in gemmen. We grab some guys we havent seen before. We grab a phone weve never seen before, but its associated with these fellas who are associated with terrorism. We have a reasonablee dynjf articulable suspicion that thats a terrorist phone. So what do we do . We get to walk up to this ocean of metadata, and we get to kind of metaphorically now, yell through the transom, hey, anybody in here talk to this phone . And if we get a number in the bronx that kind of raises its hand and says well i kind of talk to him every thursday. Nsa then gets to say well then who the hell do you talk to you . I am now done explaining to you the authorities of the National Security agency when it comes to this program. Anything else theyve done with that data has to go through Law Enforcement, not law intelligence processes. How many people get to yell through the transom . Hey, anybody talk to this number . The last time i counted at nsa was 22. How many times did nsa yell through the transom . In 2012 it was about 200 times. In 2013 it was 160 times. Now, look, honest men can differ about this. I understand that. Honest folks may even object to the existence of the database. But before we pass judgment, lets look at this in its totality and how it has been conducted. Again at the end of the discussion here, some of you may disagree with me. I think we all should allow ourselves to think this aint quite the british army parking on boston common. Thank you. [ applause ] as the only nonlibertarian on the stage id like to address a couple of things, and begin with whether it be general warrants or National Security letters. The reality is most americans are pragmatic judge they want to be safe. They want to be secure. Is there a resolution beyond saying that the Fourth Amendment, the constitution of the United States forbids intervention . Because we know that as a nation, weve had surveillance, we have expected surveillance. Weve separate utilities, say google, and facebook from what was once at t. I think most americans would have been mightily upset to find out at t was not cooperating with the federal government and its respected relevant agencies. Most people who defend the constitution, and defend the concept of privacy do not object to all spying. They object to all spying all the time on everyone. When the general and his folks have reasonable, articulable suspicion, or a higher level, probable cause they can go to a judge and get a warrant about that individual, and thats what the constitution requires. The good general took the same oath to uphold the same constitution when he entered the military and each time he got all of his welldeserved promotions to the rank of four star general as i took for my terms on the superior court. Of new jersey. The constitution is the supreme law of the land. It governs the government wherever it goes, whatever it does, no matter what its task is. If theres a problem with the constitution amend it. But while the Fourth Amendment is there it says if you want to search someone, you have to present evidence about that person. When you say [ applause ] and when you say go to court i presume youre not talking about a fisa court. When i was sitting on the bench the generals probably familiar with this judges sit 24 7. Its sometimes a ridiculous assignment, and sometimes an unwanted assignment, because you have to be awake 24 7. And my friend judge Royce Lambert who sits in washington, d. C. And occasionally 24 7 also friend of general haydens famously signed a search warrant on the back of his most cycle at 3 00 in the afternoon. And ive signed search warrants in my gym shorts in my living room at 3 00 in the morning. So judges are always available to hear emergent applications, when there is probable cause about the charges. The problem with what general haydens folks have done is theyve gone to a secret court and said give us the authority to listen to or gather data from and about all of verizons customers. Thats 110 million human beings, as to which there is zero evidence about inappropriate behavior on the part of any of them. Your response, general . Sure. First of all the jury should disregard the remark about content. Because weve all made the case, this is about metadata. Again we can argue about metadata. Not about content. Its about calls. Again i repeat the controlling legal of authority is smith versus maryland, 1979, there is not a reasonable expectation of privacy that you or i have about the bill that your Telecommunications Carrier has about you. Now with regard to renal articulable suspicion or probable cause, the judge wants us to go to a judge. Keep in mind what i said in my narrative here, all right . This is not reasonable articulable suspicion about the number in the bronx that i referred to. This is reasonable articulable suspicion that the phone we just snatched in yemen is affiliated with terrorism. By the way, the macro collection of the metadata since 2006 has been authorized by a court. And over the last two years, nsa doesnt get to yell through the transom, unless it does go to a fisa judge about the speak phone number in yemen. Before they make the inquiry. Satisfied . Im satisfied that the general believes what he said. Im not satisfied that its even remotely consistent with the constitution. Let me turn to another aspect after Edward Snowden affair broke this is supposed to be a happy occasion. It is a happy occasion. And its going to get happier. Reality is this. That we learned from general Keith Alexander who is running the nsa as to his revelation when asked about the number of conspiracies and planned attacks that were thwarted. The number given by general alexander was 57. Well go with that number rather than the adjustments later. 57. Well i wonder is why in the world the Oversight Committee intelligence Oversight Committees of the house and the senate, why they didnt know that number themselves, and two, why that number has not been in some Way Incorporated into analysis of the strategy of what were doing. Its caught and arguably intrusions into american society. Yeah, its a great question. And it gets to the reasonableness argument in the front half of the Fourth Amendment. The judge is emphasizing the back half that no warrants shall be issued except upon probable cause. But you realize certainly any of you who came here by airplane realize that not all searches are prompted or legitimated by a warrant. But its the overall standard has to do with reasonableness. And lou youre right. The judgment on reasonableness has to include the factor whether or not its worth doing. Do you get anything out of the other end . I mean i understand the offense, youve got your phone bills up at four meters somewhere and no good comes from it. You cant stand that argument. That doesnt go anywhere. Keith, when he said 54, was referring to significant events where we were able to intervene for not just the 215 program but the 702 program. It was the totality of things that snowden revealed with regard to american privacy. This is telephonic and exactly right. This is going to offend the judge even more. Remember i said we go to a court to get a warrant since 2006. I didnt go to a court to get a warrant for four years at nsa. We were doing the ancestor of this program under raw executive authority. Which, by the way, the fisa Appellate Court has upheld saying that we take as a given that the executive has inherent Constitutional Authority to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant for foreign intelligence purposes. So were still basing this on a body of laws. We have learned a lot from this program. I went and looked at some notes from things we were able to show when i was doing it through my time at the agency, which is 2005. About 18 months ago, the president ordered the closure of about three dozen american consulates and embassies throughout the middle east. And as a matter of record, the president then says to jim clapper, weve got a north american nexus . Is this only about the middle east . And jim, because of this program, because we were tracking the program through phone numbers was able to jam those phone numbers up against the metadata program, came up empty, and said no, mr. President , we have no evidence that theres a north american nexus here. Which is one very useful for security. But you realize its also very useful for liberty. Because if the president was genuinely concerned that it had a north american nexus, what were his other options . To give him confidence that he could keep you safe . A couple of a couple of comments. You only talked about the first half of general alexanders testimony, in which he testified under oath, in response to the either house or senate Intelligence Committee. I dont remember which, that it was 54 or 57 plots that were stopped as a result of nsa spying. The next day, general alexander wrote to amend his testimony to say it wasnt 54, it was 3. And when asked to identify the three, he declined to identify them. I could list a half a dozen plots that have gotten through. The shoe bomber, the Boston Marathon bombers. The copenhagen bombers. The revolution. The revolution in ukraine. You guys knew about that because you fomented it. [ applause ] the nsa problem is it has too much information. Its liening to innocent people rather than focusing on those as to whom there is evidence of wrongdoing. I dont care and the constitution and the constitution doesnt care who you listen to in a foreign country. I care who you listen to in the United States, and the constitution says the prerequisite is probable cause. [ applause ] were talking about the 25 program which has to do with metadata and phone bills. That is the High Water Mark of nsa with regard to Domestic Communications in the United States. Once again the judge has used the verb listen. I challenge any of you to take your phone bill when you go back at home and put it up to your ear and listen. See what you can learn. And i think for the record we should point out there are other agencies that have some responsibility, for example in the Boston Marathon bombing and amongst them the fbi which had direct information from the russians as to their concerns about those two proerbrothers and some of their negotiates. Its always. I dont know if its comforting to say there are more agencies that are not adequate to a given task. But anyway, there it is. I would also like to get some idea of privacy as it exists and the National Security interests as it exists in a nexus between the private sector, and the public. And that is we have two plaintiffs right now suing the federal government twitter and google insisting that they have a higher standing, and responsibility for privacy than even the government itself. Is the effect of that suit, in my judgment. But where we have private companies, google, facebook, microsoft, they are cooperating it seems to greater degrees with the government for example, of china than they are with the government of the United States. It is a peculiar moment in our history. Whereas we would once have expected these companies to be very, very cooperative with our agencies, they are in fact resisting. And doing so to what end i dont think its entirely clear to most of us, and id like to get your idea as to this conflict between private interests, and public. I dont like any more than anybody else if google or verizon or at t shares my email with you with the government ofa or the government of the United States. If im a google or at t customer, they have a duty under our contractual relationship to respect my privacy. However, the Fourth Amendment only governs the government. It does not govern private entities. Correct. And if google wants to disseminate my emails to lou dobbs or general hayden, they can do so and its my obligation then to find another carrier. The problem is that the that the federal government of the United States, through general haydens former colleagues have pretty much said to google, open everything up for us. Let us in there. We dont want to go to a judge. We dont want to have to have to come to you. We want to be there, present in your facilities so that when we need to read an email or listen to a phone call or learn the metadata, were right there and we can get it. And they all caved. Your response . Wait for the applause. [ applause ] you can do better than that. Again, if nsa were doing the things the judge just outlined we would not be having a debate. All right . He kind of echoed whats called the 702 program which allows the National Security agency to approach isps, Internet Service providers, email providers with specific, foreign email accounts that have been warranted by a judge in a general way, admittedly foreign email accounts that the agency can then access for foreign intelligence purposes. You mentioned the Boston Marathon two or three times. Let me come back to that, its kind of a little morality play from what were talking about here. The judge mentioned it in isnt it a oneact play . The judge mentioned it as a failure. Right . And the nsa, and other agencies have been criticized these two kids they were out there surfing the web for jihadist websites in gods name what are you people doing . How didnt you know this . Well the reason we didnt know this is that we do not look at the web activity of american citizens or legal permanent residents in the United States. This isnt this openended activity thats been suggested up here. This is actually very narrow. And the National Security agency, and other elements of the security structure, actually have chosen not to do things for your privacy that unarguably would actually make you a bit safer. May i ask the general a question . No. Yes. Does the head of the nsa have the constitutional Legal Authority to move the line between privacy and surveillance . No theres a clue how they would like you to answer. Its a truck question because i know how he answered it last month that a law school. At washington elite . Yes. You want the rest of the story . Yes. This may be a twoact play. Ill give you the executive summary. Ill be efficient. What i did the afternoon of 9 11 had to do with something called minimization. You know the accusations fit on a bumper sticker. The reality takes a little longer. And im sorry. But minimization is what nsa does when it inadvertently, incidentally incidentally, collects information about you. I mean, the nsa could be targeting a foreigner that foreigner talks to you, nsa still targeting the foreigner in the routine conduct of its business, it gathers information to, from or about what we call protected persons. Which is actually a bigger group than u. S. Citizens. When nsa does that nsa is required to suppress required to suppress the u. S. Identity. So in other words, foreign terrorist abu ahmed bad guy was talking to a known u. S. Person, we wont say the judge just a known u. S. Person and we minimize the u. S. Identity to protect your privacy unless, of course the identity of the u. S. Person is absolutely essential to the intelligence value of the intercept in the first place. Ive got a bad guy talking to that phone number in the bronx and says brother the attack tomorrow is at noon, i think the u. S. Persons identity is pretty important to the intelligence value of that report. So that on the afternoon of september 11th 2001, with 3,000 of my countrymen dead and smoking holes in two cities and in countryside in my native western pennsylvania, i told the nsa analysts when they were making the judgment based upon the reasonableness standards of the Fourth Amendment, when they were making the judgment as to whether or not the u. S. Identity for calls from afghanistan, whether or not the u. S. Identity was essential to understanding the intelligence they should a different standard than they used at 8 00 that morning. Thats the line i moved judge. You asked. [ applause ] somehow i didnt hear you use the word constitution. Then i swore an oath of fidelity. Then i told george tenet what i was doing and george told the president and Vice President and then i called up the chair and ranking members of the house and senate Intelligence Committees and told them what i was doing. I offered to come down to explain it to them in detail. The senate said fine, youre cool, the house said come on down, and i did. And explained it in detail to our oversite bodies. By the way, talk about oversite and secret law and so on the strongest defenders of what the nsa has been doing have been the chair and ranking of the two Oversight Committees. The chair and ranking of the people most knowledgeable and responsible for what they do. We talk about ron wyden who has certainly opposition to all of these programs the reason senator wyden has been so public is again you may agree with him and not me but in the committee which knew fully of these programs, he consistently lost the vote 132. If i may id like to go in the short time we have available here, id like to go to what i think is implicit in this discussion. And that is a lack of trust in our government on the part of the American People. [ applause ] i would like to go further and say to you, i believe personally that that lack of trust is one of the health yethsiest aspects of our society today. That skepticism, that challenge, and that insistence in, again in my judgment, on a strict interpretation of the constitution will i think help to preserve god willing this constitutional republic. I think it is also important that we understand that that trust you mentioned they had in ranking members of the senate and house Intelligence Committee will in my view and i would actually would like you both to give us your assessment they have not provided vigorous and broad intelligence oversight. There is not that perception. Congress has one of the lowest Approval Ratings in history right now. The president of the United States. The same may be said of hole. Openness and transparency has certainly not devolved from this presidency. We know that there are great and good Public Servants like general hayden. But we need far more in the way of assurances that that constitution is being observed that we Share National values, and the national interests. And i truly believe the American People right now have profound persistent doubts about that reality. Comment . Sure. Lou is absolutely right. And one of the challenges that people like me have had is that this discussion is taking place in a perfect storm of both governmental and executive overreach. So how well or how often i might argue the appropriateness of this i know its happening in a broader context of the irs, ive got a pen and a phone and we cant wait. And the president deciding whether or not the senate was or was not in session for recess appointments. It poisoned this entire discussion. And thats why i go out of my way to say, lets talk about the specifics on this one before we can make that judgment. But what also poisons all of this is the lack of accountability, and lack of transparency because a passion for secrecy with which the government has argued. You see what the general did not tell you is, when he goes to these Committee Members, and reveals what theyre doing and the Committee Members say yes, the Committee Members are sworn to secrecy and cannot tell their fellow members of the house and cannot tell their fellow members of the senate, and cannot tell the voters who sent them there. So the government has intentionally created a secret deep government if you will and sworn everybody in there to secrecy, including the judges whove been complicit in this. The essence of democracy the essence of democracy and freedom is that the Government Works for us. We dont work for it. And so we have to know what it is doing. So the judgment of the point, he and i probably agree my Old Community needs to be more transparent. Lets be real about this. You dont conduct espionage by membero site. Espionage is an activity that succeeds only because of secrecy. The grand compromise, the grand compromise, by the way were still the only western democracy that does what im going to describe to you now. The grand compromise in the mid to late 1970s is that something, espionage, which previously had was the province only of the executive, will now have oversight from the other branches of government. Out of the 70s comes the Oversight Committee. By the way, which dont exist in other democracies. We have the house and the senate, Oversight Committees. I am legally and morally responsible to keep them fully and currently informed of what it is were doing. And then and no one else does this, we brought the court in. I understand its the fisa court. And the judge says the fisa court is weird because its secret. Im telling you its weird because it exists. No other western democracy goes to a court to conduct espionage. When were looking at this from nsa, its a balance between secrecy needed for success and transparency needed for approval. Were saying this is authorized by the president , legislated by congress. Overseen by the court. Im sorry folks, that is the madisonian trifecta. Thank you. [ applause ] i want to say thank you first of all and what a pleasure it is to be with judge napolitano. General hayden its great to be with you. Its an honor. I would say if i may, general hayden, so long as we have men like yourselves and the judge contesting big issues and big ideas, in talking about this nations interests, and our great constitution all, all men and women who appear here about be playing at home before cpac. Thanks so much. Find out what important issues of the day are, to cut through the clutter and communicate directly to the American People and be exposed to conservative policies. The American People are a lot smarter than the news gives them credit for. They know the difference between spin. We work with 100 policy experts here at the Heritage Foundation who cover a range of issues. Its our commitment to delivering the news in a fair, accurate trustworthy manner. Since the daily single began we have gone where the action is. That meant sending the teams to the u. S. mexico border reporting from the scene of texas this is josh siegel with the daily signal. It meant going to the steps of the Supreme Court as decisions were being handed down. Right now were here at the Supreme Court and we work with veteran Investigative Reporter sharyl attkisson. I have far more editorial freedom contributing to stories that i do to daily signal than i have the last couple of years in my professional job at what most people consider a fair organization. Why did we start the daily signal . The media landscape is constantly changing. We want to be on the cutting edge. Theyve been willing to let stories tell themselves, go in whatever direction the stories go. Its not a question of whether its only a question of whether we capitalize on the opportunity right in front of us. That is what the daily signal is. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time senator rand paul is delayed due to a vote in the senate. He is expected to speak midday. We will keep you posted. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome ambassador john bolton. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you very much. Well its a great pleasure to be here today. And to see all of you here at cpac at the beginning of a critical election cycle. You know, i said in 2008, and still believe, that barack obama was not, and is not, qualified to be president of the United States on National Security grounds. And we have two more years of peril to go. Two very dangerous years. This is why National Security issues must be at the center of the 2016 president ial debate. [ applause ] we must have a robust debate among the various republican candidates for the nom nation. And i fully expect to play a role in that debate. One way or another. But of necessity we must look past the republican nomination process to prepare for the 2016 general election. The conventional wisdom is depressingly clear that Hillary Clinton will be the democratic nominee. Now let me just say, hillary and her husband were a year ahead of me in law school. I have been burdened with them 20 years longer 20 years longer than the rest of the country. I feel that i have a civic obligation to help escort them to the exit door of american politics. [ applause ] so, so in short i am ready for hillary. Now, she will run on the basis of her record as secretary of state. Hard as that is to believe. So let me say it clearly. Her four years at the state department demonstrate that she is not fit to be president of the United States. [ applause ] and if its not hillary the alternatives are hardly better. Joe biden. John kerry. Elizabeth warren. Heres the key point. On National Security issues hillarys record is indistinguishable from Barack Obamas. Lets consider the evidence. On International Terrorism she supported obamas withdrawal of American Forces from iraq in 2011. That is the single most significant decision to explain the chaos in the middle east, the rise of isis, the creation of a new state out of what used to be syria, and iraq. That was per policy, not just Barack Obamas. She is responsible for the state departments consistent mishandling of the arab spring, misunderstanding that this was not a new flowering of democracy but the onset of a new wave of International Terrorism, the fruits of which were seeing right now. She failed to see that isis would rise, not only in iraq and syria, but also in libya, where theyve just beheaded 21 Coptic Christians. She advocated the overthrow of moammar gadhafi. She leaked it to the press. It was published everywhere. And then she failed to follow up. Gadhafi was overthrown, and chaos descended across libya. She is the one who has said that america must devote more attention to africa, and yet boko haram is now sweeping across the african continent killing thousands of people and enslaving many others. She is the one who said recently, even after leaving the state department, that the swap of Bowe Bergdahl for five al qaeda terrorists at gitmo was a positive step. She said in a public interview about those five terrorists she said, oh those five guys. Oh, theyre no threat to us. Those five guys. Well mrs. Clinton, i beg to differ. And and lets not ever forget benghazi. Now that may be that may be what hillary would like but lets just examine it one more time. She says in her memoir, which i have read every painful page of, and i dont recommend it she says in the memoir that it was the fog of war, that things were confused, that they didnt know what had happened. But she knew quickly enough to blame the famous mohammed video. And she stuck with that story despite contrary evidence that emerged as the attack was going on. She is the one who so col husbandly testified in the United States senate. She said, what difference at this point does it make what the cause of that attack is. That is the demonstration of her fundamental inability to understand whats at stake in the war on terrorism. She she left her desk at the state department the evening while the attack was still under way in benghazi when american embassies and consulates all across north africa, and the middle east, were under threat. She left the state department to go home. Now ive worked for six different secretaries of state very different people different backgrounds, different personalities, different priorities, not one of my bosses would have left the state department where their people were still in trouble. During that entire evening and day she never once called the secretary of defense leon panetta. Every boss ive had at the state department would have been on that phone every 15 minutes. And the fundamental reality is she didnt prepare for the attack. She didnt anticipate it. She wasnt doing her job to protect americans who are sent to dangerous posts overseas. We knew as far back as february 2011 that libya had descended into chaos. We had to evacuate our personnel then. How . Through the United States navy . No we had to rent a greek ferryboat to come to tripoli to get the people out. And even after that lesson, we didnt take adequate steps to protect against what happened on september the 11th. Our people were left to die in a terrorist attack that we had no way of getting to rescue them. And there was no effort on that day to worry about what other steps might be taken. But even worse, under her tenure in the time since september the 11th, 2012, the entire Administration Response has been to arrest one person to bring them in the United States for a full due process criminal trial. No retribution. No retaliation. The terrorists and their state sponsors around the world have learned that under barack obama, and Hillary Clinton, you can kill an American Ambassador and do it with impunity. Thats Hillary Clintons lesson. [ applause ] she has pursued a policy in the middle east against our staunchest ally israel as if its an adversary. Thinking that its israels actions that are the cause of peace and threats to peace and insecurity in the middle east. It was with russia. It was Hillary Clintons reset button that wasnt even translated correctly when they gave it to the Russian Foreign minister. She is the one who advocating collapsing our National Missile Defense Program just at the point we will need it to protect ourselves against north korean and iranian ballistic missiles. She is the one who negotiated the new s. T. A. R. T. Arms control agreement that has allowed russia to rebuild its Nuclear Capacity as ours has been drawn down. Under her watch russia committed massive, unanswered violations of the inf treaty while she stood by. She is the one who allowed ukraine to remain vulnerable and allowed Vladimir Putin to use military force on the continent of europe to change international boundaries. Something that we said in 1945 we would never allow to happen again. And whats next . What a waste president clinton, the baltics, what other nato members are we going to see in threat. In the far east she faced china with making massive territorial games in the east and South China Sea and her policy and response was to call for a peaceful negotiation of disputed territorial claims. Tell that to the philippines and vietnam when they see China Building installations in the South China Sea. Hillary clinton has negotiated treaties that threaten american sovereignty. The u. N. Arms trade treaty which is a backhand way of getting around the Second Amendment. She has said she wants to sign the International Criminal court treaty, which is a dagger aimed at the heart of americas defense capability. And the deal with iraq, the nuclear deal that barack obama is about to sign, those negotiations were launched while she was secretary of state. This deal will be the biggest act of american appeasement in contemporary history. It will enable iran to move to Nuclear Weapons capabilities at a time of their choosing. It will legitimize this terrorist regime which has been the largest financer of International Terrorism for the last 35 years. All of this occurred under hillarys watch. And then we come to issues like north korea, and its Nuclear Weapons program, which is basically a memory lapse under Hillary Clinton. I come back to the central point, with that regard, and being the third obama term it has to be the case that National Security is at the core of the 2016 president ial campaign. The conventional wisdom that the American People do not care about Foreign Policy is wrong. The American People are ahead of their leaders in washington on that point. They want a president who will defend the country. We made a grave mistake in 2008, and 2012 by electing someone who was unqualified and unwilling to do what was necessary to protect our country from foreign threats. We cannot afford to make that mistake a third time in a row. The people in this room can, and must make that difference in november of 2016. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you ambassador bolton. Thank you. Thank you ambassador bolton. We have just a few questions that twitter questions are coming in cpacq. First one, what do you think are going to be the real adverse effects of obamas Immigration Program on the security of this country . Well i think its a mistake to begin with, even to talk about comprehensive Immigration Reform. I think that we made that mistake under president reagan in 1986, despite his best efforts, the problem went from 3 million Illegal Immigrants to 11 million. I think what the president s trying to do is very similar to what he does across the board, this is not about governance, this is about politics. This is about fundamentally transforming america. And i think the fact that the borders are still not secure, not just a problem for ilLegal Immigration, its a problem with drug trafficking. Its a problem of human trafficking. Its a problem of threats to our National Security. Even the Obama Administration indicted high officials of the Iranian Revolutionary guards corps a few years ago for plotting to kill the ambassador of saudi arabia in the streets of washington. This has the control of the border has incredibly important implications for our National Security. And i think as with most other National Security issues the president is simply indifferent. [ applause ] thank you. Lets talk a little more about the expansion of isis the recruiting of isis for isis here in this country. The lack of strategy to deal with that, and what spot that puts the next commander in chief in. Well, i think the president s been completely negligent in his duty. He doesnt believe were engaged in a war with terrorism. He said repeatedly this is a Law Enforcement matter. Its sort of like a jumped up version of robbing the local star bachs. And if you dont understand youre in a war. If you dont understand theres an ideology that hates our country, hates our way of life and is determined to destroy it, you cant possibly react against it. I believe there are terrorists in this country. I believe more are coming. I think theyre coming from isis. I think theyre coming from many other places around the world. Theyre going to wait for the opportunity, weve seen what happened in paris and copenhagen, on Parliament Hill in ottawa and sydney, australia. Weve seen it in this country too. We havent had examples of workplace violence. Weve had terrorist attacks at ft. Hood. [ applause ] weve had the Boston Marathon. Ladies and gentlemen, nobody wants to be at war. We didnt start this war. The terrorists did. And ignoring it doesnt mean it will go away. One last question. The visit thats coming up very soon by Prime Minister netanyahu. Lets talk about the president s relationship with israel. The on and off relationship with israel and its effect on the negotiations in iran. President obama has the worst relationship with israel since the state of israel was created in 1948. He views israel as an extension of the west into the middle east. As an intrusion, as the problem. Weve had six years of threats from the middle east and what has barack obama focused on along with Hillary Clinton . That the single bravest threat to peace and security in the region according to the Obama Clinton view is israel building apartments in east jerusalem. Now, we have the leader of our closest ally in the region who faces an extensionable threat, the threat of what some have called a nuclear holocaust. A half a dozen Nuclear Weapons on a small county like israel, there is no israel. Prime minister netanyahu is entirely correct in seeing this deal as a sellout. And and i congratulate Speaker Boehner for inviting this ally to come and speak to a joint session of congress. I think Barack Obamas behavior is is reprehensible. And i think if Hillary Clinton really wants to be president of the United States if she is ever to break from barack obama if she is ever to show any daylight between her policies and Barack Obamas, she should welcome bb netanyahu. She should meet with him. Work with him and show that she really has americas interests first. That wont happen, but thats what she should do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Ci joa xpwfb7p4ly congratulations on your new role and i join everyone else in celebrating that role. Weve known each other a long time and i know youre a leader. I know you have fwraet values and i know youre going to accomplish great things. Youre also one of the real good guys in town and the that means a lot. So, congratulations. Youre going to do great things for our country. Well, im a chairman that was born after the creation of the organization. So, theres a real generational change. The reason ive been involved in politics is to get the right policy outcomes to try to make a difference with the country. And i do think that the country is looking for new voices. He was always what i called a good kid but thats a mothers perspective. Responsible. Hard working. Seemed to love his family. But most of all, matt was determined and still is extremely determined. If he believes in something, hes going to defend it to the end. I think as a family, we all learn that where ever we are, you pick up your stuff and go. Put your faith in the lord, turn it over and move on. My first kind of intellectual framework on what it meant to be a conservative had a lot to do with william f. Buckley. It was in college sitting through class after class with sometimes, very liberal professors and hearing their strange perspective on the world. And i was realizing what it really took to get by. But it took to make ends meet. And what really made sense and it just seemed Crystal Clear to me. First got to meet matt when he was working over at the white house. Thats a good chairman for the acu because he understands how integrated the conservative message is. Chris, you know, hes kind of going a thing right now. Okay. Dont knock me. Youll never be matt has impeccable conservative instincts and hes a Public Servant at heart so taking on the acu chairmanship i think was a perfect opportunity for him to continue to advance conservative causes. If you took the values of somebody like mercy who grows up as a cuban american in florida and match that with somebody from the midwest from kansas, you almost have the perfect match. September 11th was just a terrible day for our countyry, the world. People woke up and people grew up. I think our country grew up. For me, it changed my life in an instant. On 9 11, matt and i were both working at the white house. The secret service came in and basically said you need to leave. As quickly as you can. She ran her way, i ran my way. It was pretty much melee in the white house and i remember thinking theres only two things i wanted to do. I wanted to call my family and tell them i was okay and i wanted to figure out where mercy was and tracked her down and realized at that moment that she was awfully special to me and i wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Gl and i remember that evening, i said what are we going to do . Said were going to get up tomorrow morning and go back to the white house and go back to work. At that moment, i was like, this is a man thats just strong. Hes brave. And you know, i just knew at that moment i wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. Favorite things to do every christmas is to take all the christmas cards that we get from friends and family and look at all the children that all of our friends have had and then we rank them. The thing that was amazing is that every other year, there was another child and now, there are two dogs and instead of being burdened with all these responsibilities, they are so joyous about having a big family. Theres something american about just finding their own unique way to move forward and i look at the country today and i realize who we need to win. We cant have a third obama term. If the center right can be pulled together. Doesnt mean everybodys going to agree, but if they can be pulled together, we could win a president ial election with the conservative. Its time for those folks that want to take their country back to work constructively together in order to get that accomplish accomplished. Hello. My name is and these are my sisters. So, my dad told okay. So, my dad told me that cpac was heading in a new direction but i thought he was going to buy me concert tickets to go see my favorite boy band one direction. Thats a big difference. But any ways, im honored to be here in front of such a wonderful and conservative audience. Everyone has a superhero in their lives. Mine is my dad. He is such a great inspiration in my life he has taught me the importance of loving god, loving others and loving our great nation. He has also taught me that it is more important to give than to receive and to always stand up for what i believe in. He has taught me that if i work hard hard, i can achieve my dreams. He reminds me that america is the greatest nation in the world. And that i could never take my freedoms for granted. But lastly my dad has shown me that guys can watch endless reruns of princess and barbie movies, too. When i grow up i would be blessed to be at committed to serving our nation as my dad and now, introducing my superhero, my dad matt shlapp. Okay, all you dads out there. I have to say, im scared to watch them grow up a little bit. Youre beautiful girls and a great job. Im really proud of all of you and thanks for being here. Thank you. As you can see, my wife, mercy and i, are committed to erasing the gender gap. One daughter at a time. Cpac 2015 is an important moment for all of us. And i want to thank my partners on this journey. Dan schneider, our executive director. Yes. And carly fear na feern na, our federation chair. As you heard yesterday, carly is an inspirational conservative leader. Who brings real world experience and a touch of class to everything she does. And im honored to call her friend. And dan schneider, hes a sterling example of midwest know how and determination. Now, i do want to say publicly also to dans wife that we give her a public apology for taking so much of dans time as we prepared for this great event. Karrerly, dan, our cpac director and the rest of the whole team have worked really hard to make the American Conservative Union and this our marquee event, cpac, a place where conservatives can unite, plot, organize, fight and eventually, celebrate. Thats right. But not yet. Im humbled to stand before you as the new chairman of the union and dont let this white hair fool you. Im actually younger than the acu. Which is our nations oldest grass roots conservative organization. Yes, i have to tell you, its your worst nightmare. The kids are in charge. We may be a new generation of conservative leadership, but dont worry, we still know how important it is that we cling to our religion and our guns. And our heroes, our heroes, theyre your heroes, too. And now the its the time for all of us to get to Work Together because as it says above me, conservative action starts here. And just two days ago, that action started. Many of you participated in it. All of you have read about it. We started our first ever activism boot camp led by two of our board members, ned ryan and Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute. They trained almost 500 new activists who will take what they learned here and bring it home to their communities. And look, we all know politics is a lot of talk. But i assure you at the American Conservative Union, we will insist on action. Much of this conference will be focused, it has been focused on the issues leading up to the 206 election. But lets just take a step back. Take a breath. Do you remember how good you felt on election day just a couple of months ago . Think about it. Yes. All those great victories. When you turned on the television and saw all those victories across the country. You made that happen. And thank you for all the work you did to make that happen. And because of that work, and because of your membership in the American Conservative Union and your commitment to the cause, the acu was able to play a key role in adding four new conservative members to the house of representatives. You know who they are. Im going to mention their names. Rod blum of iowa. Come on, iowa. Barbara of the commonwealth of virginia. There we go. Bruce westerman of arkansas. And of course, alex mooney of west virginia. There we go. Okay, west virginia. When you see alex tell him youre a member of the acu. Hes going to give you a big cuban hug of thanks. Look, congress not only needs more thoughtful conservatives but they need help in determining which conservative policies to push and how to better reach the country. And our new acu policy centers will do just that. We intend to light a spark to provide fresh conservative perspective that links smart politics with sound policy that can be made relevant to your lives. And ill tell you one thing thats true. Havent the last six years seemed like an eternity . Even president obamas speeches go on and on and on. And i hate to inform you, he has two years left. And you can just see president obama worried that time is slipping away. Its almost as if we could read his mind. So little time. And so many golf courses. You just met my five girls. And youve heard the story of our family. Nothing is more important than our families. And this may come as a shock to you, but like all big families, we dont always disagree. Come over to our family and sit around our dinner table. Youll hear a lot of interesting discussion and i want you to look around. Look around this big room. The biggest room in this big town. This conservative family that fills this room and surrounds this stage is is made up of activists who approach politics with different priorities. For some, the priority is free markets. Free trade. Smaller government and lore eer taxes and those are important things. For others, they look overseas and theyre concerned about islamic radicals terrorists and they worry about our security. Finally, others are guided by their faith. And believe that our future can only be bright when we value all life, encourage Strong Families and hold fast to our cultural traditions. This, my friends, all of you, were a unique Political Coalition and let me tell you, were a winning coalition. Were a winning coalition. And let me tell you, if youre new to this movement and have joined us today or youre watching from across the country, youre hearing about the debate were having nationwide and also as a movement. If any of this is appealing to you, come join us. Because we are going to be a winning coalition. And were going to grow our numbers. And the fact is, we all know this. Its time for all of us to get the math right. We cant succeed if its about subtraction. Which leads to our division. Its got to be about addition. Its got to be about adding. So that our numbers can multiply. And for just a moment, as hard as it is, use everything you can muster. Lets forget about the occupant of the white house for just a moment. And lets think about our fellow merps who are struggling every day, who consistently and courageously just make it work for their families. And for me, theres one person who personifies what is good and decent and reliable in the american spirit. And thats my mom. And shes with us today. Like many kids, i have my struggles in my childhood, but she was always there. Mom, you were my rock. She held down a job, took care of a home, helped us with our homework, drove us to endless afterschool activities and was always there at the end of the day to give us counsel and did this all mostly on her own. You know raising four kids wasnt easy for you, mom, especially with me being there. And it isnt easy today for folks who are in that situation but mom taught me some critical lessons and i raise this because these lessons are important to us as we face what were facing as a country. But one more thing about mom. She was born in brooklyn and shes going to expect somebody is here from brooklyn . Oh my lord we are going to win. And i just tell you you better listen up or youre going to have her to deal with. Id like to share these lessons with you now because i think they can help us with our country. The first lesson my mom taught me was to never give up. No matter the obstacle youre faced with. No matter how discouraged you find yourself, move forward and never give up. Conservatives, i urge you, now is not the time to give up. And a stand up for yourselves and for the country. Even when it means taking on the rich and the powerful and the well connected. Push back give them hell never be bullied, even when the bully is Big Government. And most importantly, remember, that god has a plan and no matter how bad things get for you or for our country, gods going to get us through it. You see, he loves us. And hes blessed this great nation. And boy, does that message differ from the message the president has given us. You remember. He says, you didnt build it. They are too big to fail and his policy policies make you feel like youre too small to matter. Now, pay your taxes, pipe down and go get in line to buy obamacare. But conservatives, guess what . The time of the obama political machine is drawing to a close. [ cheers and applause ] and help, help is op the way. And i can make you two promises. Straight from my heart. Youre going to hear from the next president of the United States right here from this stage during this cpac. And one thing more, that president will respect your voice, respect the constitution and begin to make America Great again. God bless you all and thank you very much. Thanks. In difficult times even more than in the voice of conservatives has made it heard in the immediatemedia. It isnt always easy, but at this, we can be sure, while the Washington Times is alive and well, conservative views will never be drowned out and if they are heard, they will prevail. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome acu, acuf, carolyn medicine doughs. Good morning, cpac. I have the great honor to introduce a friend of many years, hes had a great influence on my life as yours. Before sean hannity was a rock star at fox, he was actually a rock star in atlanta. Yay for atlanta. When fox was a start up company and they wisely asked sean to come on board, they were just getting started. And sean came to me and said what should i do . Should i leave security and go to this start up company . My advice to him was go for it. You and jill dont even have children yet. And if you go bust, what will happen . You can go back to alabama and paint houses. He has done a phenomenal job for the cause of conservatism. I think we owe sean a great deal. And if he retires ever from fox he can go to some high school, throw out footballs and do practice with them. So, please welcome my hero, sean hannity. Hello, cpac all right, i got something. How yall doing . Yes. All right, we got plenty more footballs. How yall doing . Why dont you all get closer and ill hand you the football. Everyone, come on in. Youve been sitting, everyones tired. Look at these gorgeous, Great American girls. I wish we could get them on shot here. Look at these three girls in the green here, how cute and adorable and their bigger sister in purple. That is the future of america right there and thats why were going to fight so hard. I have let me start with some good news. Thank you. Dont worry. All you that get closer, the odds of you getting a football are much higher. I, i have some good news to start. America, america, we will fundamentally transform it. Back to the great country it was. Our long nightmare, our long nightmare of lawlessness and obamacare and weakness as it relates to Foreign Policy an economic nightmare, is coming to an end and its going to take every single solitary one of you in this room to make that happen. You all with me to join in and do that . You know. You know, one of the things, let me ask because we have so many candidates. I am probably the perfect person to be here in one sense because im like all of you. I have not decided who should be our nominee yet. Hang on. We can play all right, who wants marco rubio, senator rubio . Senator ted cruz . Senator rand paul . Who, im going to forget somebodys name and theyre going to be really mad. Who likes governor bobby jindal . Former governor rick perry . How many people like former senator, Rick Santorum . Hes going to be speaking today. Who likes ben carson . All right . We got a defense. Who likes Governor Scott walker . Wow, very impressive. As my dear friend matt just told you, i am optimistic and i believe that you, this process now starts. You remember how you felt the day after mitt romney lost . I know how you all feel. Because my tv ratings, the second day after he lost, you all abandoned me for like six months. Because why . We were all depressed, right . But the process starts now. Right now, and i am convinced that somebody that you will hear from this stage during this conference, which im so honored to be a part of with its rich history of advancing the conservative movement in america are going to be right on this stage and you are going to make everybody in this room watching on cspan and fox news, you are going to make that happen. I applaud all of you for your hard work and your efforts. You are the grass roots. Doesnt it get a little old, i start, i talked about this with marco rubio today. Im going to be back on stage with donald trump and jeb bush later. You all stay ing ning . Okay. Jeb bush, any supporters . Any Chris Christie sport spo supporters . Who did i forget thats running . Who . Carly fiorina supporters . Ralph nader. Ralph nader security, can you get this guy out of here . Whats that . Hannitys not running in 2016. Donald trump, any Trump Supporters . O okay. All right. You know what though . Think of how these years have been. If every single thing, were in the seventh year of the Obama Presidency and hes blaming fox news, karl rove, rush limbaugh, glenn beck, sean hannity and when all else fails, who does he blame . Right, its sort of like if the dog bites, if the bee stings if youre feeling bad after you give the dog a bone, it bites you. Whose fault is is it . Right . Some of you were drinking heavily last night. You woke up with a headache this morning. Its not your fault. Its not jack daniels fault, its not budweisers fault. Whose fault is it . If youre stupid enough, say i had a bees nest at my house. If i was stupid like a liberal and i took a baseball bat and i knocked down the wasp nest and the bees sting me. It wouldnt have been my fault. Wouldnt have been the wasp fault. All right, so, we have a young, good looking crowd here at cpac, right . By the way, i am so glad you young people are here. You are the future and we are going to make this country good for you. We are going to do it. I can look out in the crowd, kind of have xray fox vision. Some of you women, you dont know it yet, but youre pregnant. Its not your fault. Its not his fault. Whose fault is it . No. L6 hannity, your friend, bill clinton, i cant blame bush for that one. All right. I want to get serious in this sense. X my, you all, we all have a similar story. Its the american story. All four of my grandparents, god bless their soul they came to america, they had no money. They had a hope that they could build a better life for their children and their grandchildren. My father grew up really, really poor. In bedford sty in brooklyn, new york and my grandmother, his wife died a couple of months after childbirth. My dad had a tough life. He fought in world war ii for four years and it was a really big deal when he got that 50 by 100 lot. How many of you grew up in that kind of neighborhood . The it was a cape cod house and three old erer sisters. One bathroom. Definition of hell on earth. Spent a lot of times running out to the back, but i did in the bushes. It was bad. Its the bushs fault. Right. Hang on. You deserve a football for that. Anybody that gives the speaker a joke, thats good we get a laugh laugh, you get a football. But i, the way i look at my life, i have been blessed to live in this country. Blessed by god that i really feel that i stand on the shoulders of these people that were risk takers that were willing to leave their country behind in the hope of what this dream of america is. And i stand on my fathers shoulders. I think my father, he died six months after i started at fox. If he were here today, he would feel so successful because his dream wasnt for himself. It was for his children. They sacrificed to send us all to catholic schools. They didnt have a lot of money. It was a big deal they sacrificed that money. How many of you have similar stories . So many of us. Even you guys in the back, hello. Right . Heres what i want to tell you. I want to give you a little bit of bad news, then a little bit of good news. What do you want first . Im going to give you the bad news. I look at this audience and im looking right around this stage and i see one young face after another. Im looking all out in the this crowd. Which gives me hope for the future. Heres the problem. I never thought there would be a time in america where 50 million of our fellow sitcitizens just shy of 50 million, live in poverty in america today. Theyre struggling to feed their kids. I never thought we would have nearly 50 million americans on food stamps in america. This is the land of opportunity. This is the land of plenty. Its almost 20 million more people than when barack obama became the president of the United States. We can do better. Now i never thought there would be a time in American History. Remember when obama was running in 2007 and 2008 . By the way, i hate to say i told you so, but i told you so to some of, not this crowd, obviously, all the liberals that are going to be writing about the speech and dont like me. I never thought he said about 9 trillion in debt that it was irresponsible and unpatriotic. Right right . He is now, by the time he leaves office, he will accumulate almost as much debt as every other president before him combined. Add to that, 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The American People are needlessly suffering because of bad politics in washington and bad governance. Now now, the other bad news i have to say to you young people, i feel bad because this may become the first time in American History where our generation leaves this country in worse shape than that which we found it, it was the antithesis of what our grandfathers, grandmothers, our fathers and mothers wanted for us. They wanted us to do better than they did. My hope for my children is that they live in america that has more opportunity, more prosperity, more success more wealth. Jack kemp used to always say, its not a zero sum game that a rising tide lifts all boats. I look at right now, i never thought in my lifetime that the world would be battling al qaeda, boka haram, jihad isis, radical islamists. Newt gingrich said they have been at war with us since 19 and the iranian hostage crisis. The 9 11 Commission Report said they were at war with us, we were not at war with them. I never thought in my lifetime that i admire the king of jordan after one pilot was burned to death, he opened up, he opened up the gates of hell and fury on the radical islamists that killed that poor, innocent pilot. I never thought i would admire the president of egypt, who went before imams and said you have got to take back this religion from radicals that are hijacking it. And that when 21 Coptic Christians mar tired and assassinated in cold blood, that he would unleash hell and fury on radical islamists that he identified and this is the sad part. The day the president gave a statement about a fellow american named james foley, how many of you saw the video . Who was beheaded by these radical modern day frankly nazis, brutally. Its a level of evil unprecedented. That the president would give a statement turn, turn around and 30 seconds later, be on a golf course. Unbelievable. Shameful. Yes, sir. Shameful. I never thought id have a president that would try and tell the American People and convince them the Islamic State is not islamic. I never thought id have a president that when 21 christians were murdered, didnt identify them as christians. I never thought that id have a president with as radical background and associations which you know where i feel on that. I wont go into greater detail. The world right now is craving answers, solutions. The answers and solutions i have always believed as a conservative, are going to come from us. I started the conservative solution caucus in 2014. Im one of the republicans to run on ideas. Everybody in americas made up their mind about barack obama. Okay . Hes gone. Thankfully in two years. I want as somebody well, as somebody whos not made up their mind who is going to be president , i wanted to just give you a few points on what i am looking for in the next president of the United States. Theres a great, one of my favorite movies is brave heart. You remember . You like brave heart . Freedom okay. I love, theres a moment in that movie, william wallace, sir robert the bruce he turns to the you know elites, nobles and he says, theyre outside. I see strength in you. I see strength in you. Unite us. Unite us. I know there are some here in this room that identify themselves as Tea Party Conservatives. I identify myself as a reagan tea party conservative. Thats where i stand. I know there are people that may be we view as establishment republicans. So, what i am proposing is this. We are in such a tough position as a country, these problems are so great and i want to make sure we live up to our responsibility to leave a country better than we found it. I propose the following things. I want to make sure, i would like to see the establishment and tea party unite. Okay . Youre skeptical. Im going to change your skeptical. If the Republican Party is honest, if you are establishment or tea party, do you not agree it is immoral to accumulate 18 trillion in debt and rob future generations of their Inheritance Inheritance . We all agree . Okay. I like the penny plan. I like a balanced budget a aamendment instead of baseline budgeting. Cut one penny out of every dollar one year for every six years. We do it because its morally right for our children and future generations. Thats something i think the Tea Party Conservatives and establishment, we all ought to agree on. I want the next president of the United States to commit to eradicating radical islamists not degrade. I think republicans tea party, conservative establishment ought to agree that radical islamists equal the modern they are a modern day version of the hundred million souls we lost in the last century. Communism, nazism and we ought to agree this cancer we must rid the world of this evil. We all agree . I think as conservatives, we can all agree on another thing. I am tired of america being dependent on countries that hate our guts, right . For our energy. We have more energy withym coupled with new technology, hydro fracking horizontal drilling. We have more resources than the entire middle east combined. Lets, we ought to agree establishment tea party, let us break this moply. Let america commit to being Energy Independent in five years. Ought to be a goal. We have some of the best and brightest minds. We send them to some of the worst schools that america has ever seen. How about especially inner city america, i say that establishedment conservative tea party unite on this principle. Let you, the parents, choose the school that you want to send your children to. Right . I know theres a lot of issues involving immigration. Some want comprehensive Immigration Reform. Some like me, i prefer to secure the borders first. Its like tax. Its like tax increases and spending cuts. You always get the tax increase, never the spending cut. Youve got to get amnesty, the border secure. I would think we can agree on one thing first. Lets secure americas borders for the safety and security of the American People. I i just want to say this. We have 92 million americans out of the workforce. 50 million americans in poverty. Nearly 50. Nearly 50 million americans on food stamps. We have evil in our time that needs to be defeated. This is my pledge to you. As somebody whos undecided. On both my radio and Television Program on fox news channel, i promise you this. As somebody who has not made up his mind i am going to give access to every single solitary candidate as often as i can, as often as theyll come by the end of the process, i will ask them every question i can think of and then i am putting this all in your hands and what im saying to you and challenging you is to dig deep, find the person that, that absolutely understands that it is the destiny of this country to stand as a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world. No country has given more to the world to advance the cause of freedom than this country, the United States of america. And i am just saying that i believe somebody at this conference will be the next president of the United States. And youre going to make that decision. And i wanted to say one last thing and wrap up now. Okay. Sorry, matt. I want to say one last thing. We owe it to the young people in this room. We owe them that we are going to work day and night, blood, sweat tears. We owe it to the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives their limbs in the defense of liberty and freedom. We owe it to them that when god calls us home sooner for me than a lot of you young people, when that happens, that we leave them with what president reagan described as that shining beacon city on a hill. Theres nothing america cant do and it begins in this room and i pledge this to you. We will work day and night if you all commit in your hearts, that you are going to fight for your countyry, fight for the cause of liberty, fight for your constitution, fight against lawlessness, stand up and defend our troops, fight for the principles we outlined here today, if we start on the points of agreement we can make this once more, the great and i believe america is god destined. And well make america once again the greatest country god has ever given man. Im proud to be a part of this fight with you all. God bless you. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, from the Republican National committee, please welcome reince priebus. Well, i think we just found a new addition to the republican platform for 2016. What do you guys think . Thank you. God bless. Chairman reince prebus, give it up. Good morning, cpac. Im having so much fun with you. Im losing my voice. But you know by my calculations, weve got just over 690 days until the end of the Obama Administration. And that day that day cant come soon enough. But ladies and gentlemen, weve got work to do right now. Ekvpp 2014 was a great year for republicans in america. We took back the senate. We fired harry reid. We won the largest majority in the house. Since 1928. And we now have 31 republican governors in america, including the governor of the president s home state of illinois. R elizabeth warrens state of massachusetts. And how about right here in maryland with larry hogan . It was a great year for our party. But you know, we cant get comfortable. Winning in 2016, winning in 206 is going to be a lot of work. Winning a big cultural vote in this country. But if we do that hard work, we will win the white house. Well have a republican president and 1600 pennsylvania avenue will never be home to the clintons again. Now, heres where the democrats dont want you to admit. Its not just conservatives as cpac that are tire edd of the Obama Clinton agenda. Polls show that over 70 of the country want the next president to take a different direction. Than barack obama. Thats bad news for Hillary Clinton because i can guarantee you, america, youre not going to get Something Different than obama with a member of the Obama Administration. Youre going to get a third term. Of barack obama. I dont think our country will accept that. I dont think our constitution can haneldle that and i dont think our kids can afford that. The good news for us is republicans have a great field of candidates that are running for president. And id much rather have that than what the democrats have. Theyve got one candidate ready to coordinate ourself and they have a sit l Vice President who cant control his mouth or his hands. Whos been running for president since before i could vote. Republican voters are going to have a real choice. That means real debates about new ideas. And speaking of debates, im proud to tell you what the days of the media calling the shots in our primary debates are over. You know in the past in the past, you know, the media got to decide when and where and how many debates there were. Not anymore. At the rnc, we created a new system for a reasonable number of debates. By the way how many people here think its a good idea for us to have 23 debates in front of people like Chris Matthews . This time were going to assist in choosing debate partners and panelists, not the other way around. Conservative media will have a voice and a process. For example, we Just Announced that salem radio, the home of hue huet and bill bennett will partner for the debates with cnn, so the field day for the liberal media is over. At the rnc, weve also reformed the primary process so that more republicans have a chance to cast their ballots and have a say in the selection of our nominee. Its going to be different this time. And let me be clear this is the voters, the delegates, who chose the nominee. Unlike the democrats there will be no coronation Republican Party. If you want to win the nomination, youre going to have to earn the nomination. But when we have a nominee well have to come together stronger and more united than ever to defeat Hillary Clinton. You know, the funny thing about Hillary Clinton is that the more people that hear from her, the less they like her. In fact, in the last six years her Approval Rating was the highest when she was out of the country and off the campaign trail. True fact. Thats probably why hillary barely comes out in public these days. If theres not a private luxury jet and a quarter Million Dollar speaking fee waiting for her you can forget about it. The truth is, she doesnt have much to say. If you ask her press people anything, theyll just say, no comment. Im sure obama wishes biden would follow that example. Really. This is what you would get if you asked the clinton people a question. Do you support keystone . No comment. Do you have a plan for isis . No comment. How are you different than barack obama . No comment. Where were you on the night of the benghazi attacks . What difference at this point does it make . It makes a lot of difference. If you want to lead the American People, its time to face the American People. Oh, and by the way if i was Hillary Clinton, this speech would have already cost you 20,000. But hillary would never speak here. Youve seen her speaking contracts and her hollywood style backstage demands . Well, i checked backstage. There was insufficient crew deta. The water temperature was off by a few degrees. And i dont think the lemon wedges were cut quite at the right angle. I think Hillary Clintons lost touch with america. Even i, im sure most of you and everyone else watching this, would have to google how to spell crew deta and that, by the way, is coming from a guy whose name is reince prebus. By the way, my kids are named jack and grace, so some family traditions are worth killing off and my names one of them. Of course if you ask joe biden what crew deta is, hed probably say, oh yeah, i had a great relationship with that community. Theres an awful lot of them driving cabs in delaware. For real man, theyre friends of mine and thats his words not mine. And then of course, hed rub your neck without permission. But seriously, when hillary is making 300,000 for a is we dont have a problem with financial suck cease, we just think you ought to work for it. The problem for america is not just hillary who is out of touch, it is her only party. They veto the keystone pipeline. And they say they are for main street and not wall street but they pass frank dod. They tell us they are for health but they praised our premium and canceled our plans an deny access to our democrats. They tell us they are for education but they block School Choice and force kids to be stuck in failing schools. A good school shouldnt be a privilege reserved for the rich and wellconnected it should be an option for all parents in this country regardless of what your zip code is. [ applause ] now i dont know where to start on National Security. Democrats tell us they understand the world, but then they call Climate Change not radical islamic terrorism the greatest threat to National Security. Look i think we all care about our planet but melting icebergs arent beheading christians in the middle east. If you look at the ruthless slaughtering of innocents of all faiths, in the middle east and europe and call that our greatest strength, greatest threat, then you know what, it is time to get a different profession. But that is how the democrats see the world. And by the way dont you agree they ought to show up and welcome Prime Minister netanyahu and listen to what our greatest ally israel, has to say. And as for us we need to make the case against Hillary Clinton and her party. And if you want to stunt a liberal, ask them to name Hillary Clinton grettest accomplishment. Shes known for hillary care and after all of the foreign travel as secretary of state she didnt raise many good will for our country but she did manage to raise a lot of foreign money for the clinton foundation. Taking money gin u0 algeria sand oman. While she was sect secretary of state. And how that will affect her answer on that 3 00 a. M. Phone call. I can hear it now. Dont worry sultan, just send 10 million to the foundation and it will all work out. Reports say that Hillary Clinton has over 200 advisers figuring out her reason for running. Maybe theyll figure it out, but i cant. I do know the reason we need a republican president. And to borrow the words of joe biden, quote, the last six years have been really really hard for this country, end quote. We know what we stand for. And maybe Hillary Clintons focus groups will figure out what she stands for. And so i want to say this one more time and you all know im a wisconsin guy and a big Green Bay Packers fan. And as the great coach vince lom kbardy is lombardi is quoted as saying the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. Were going to continue to build the mechanics and infrastructure across america. You know im in charge of a lot of the boring stuff. The ground game, the registration, the data the process, but we have to do that so when we have a nominee no matter who that is and who it is you want to get behind and help, we have to have a National Party that has its act together and competent in the mechanics that our nominee can plug into the best machine possible. So lets get to work and make sure there is no third term of barack obama and his policies lets defeat the clintons once and for all and elect a conservative republican president who will fight for working americans each and every day. Thank you. The work begins here at cpac. Thank you and god bless you and god bless america. Thank you very much. Thank you. [ applause ]. Welcome to cpac 2015 everybody. This is a packed room. Weve had a number of amazing speakers and our next speaker is no different. You know there are very few people in the United States who have made it to the point where they can be known by one name. Cher beyonce, and trump. Our next speaker has been able to marry business politics and pop culture. That is a rare feat. Youve seen him referenced everywhere very successful Business Owner and very successful in real estate and very successful entrepreneur and Successful Television show and ive had trivia questions where his name was an answer. That says a lot. And regardless of what people think about where someone comes from as they enter the political sphere i love the fact in a big tent you can have multiple im ar impersarios. So love him or hate him donald trump. [ applause ] thank you very much. It is such an honor to be here at cpac. Weve done this before. The response has been so great. I love you people. You are really my kind of people. You are conservative you work and you love the country. It is very simple. So a lot of people youre fired. Yeah. A lot of people think im doing this for fun. They think it is good for my brand and im here and im doing that and im a big successful guy. Im not doing this for fun. Im doing it because we have to take our country back. Our country our country is in serious, serious problem. We have a president whose either incompetent, which i think he could be, or hes got his own agenda, which i know he does. I mean, he does definitely have the agenda. Washington is totally broken. And it is not going to get fixed unless we put the right person in that top position. Its just not going to happen. Now, the problem i have, im not a politician. Thank goodness. Politicians are all talk no action. Ive dealt with them all my life. The king of zoning, the king of i deal with politicians. That is what i do. I deal with foreign leaders. I deal with people. In this country, our politicians are all talk no action. Now im a conservative and im a republican. But i look at what is going on with the republicans. Im almost more disappointed with the republicans. Because [ applause ] and you can go right now. Because right now they are sitting over there and they are going to make a decision on whether or not to fund and i guarantee the answer is were going to fund, were going to fund and keep doing it. Our president broke the law when he did what he did. And youre going to have to take a tremendously strong action or youre going to have people just froing into this flowing into this country worse than it ever did. They are coming in now by the thousands and they are only going to get worse. So the republicans have to tough toughen up. They have to toughen up on the irs and benghazi and everything. And most importantly perhaps other than immigration they have to toughen up on obama care which is a total lie and which is a total and complete disaster. And when it kicks in because it really kicks in in 2016, when it kicks it, you will see catastrophic results. People are losing work and companies are closing because of obama care. Now when was the last time you heard something good about our country. Well we won. We beat china. We beat mexico. We beat somebody. We never win. You dont hear good news about this country. We are in a position where we just never win. And that is because of our leadership. You need somebody perhaps that wrote the art of the deal. One of the great Business Books of all time i might add. Now a little example. Somebody said i cant believe you got the Old Post Office meaning right down the road on pennsylvania avenue. I wish it was. Right down the road the Old Post Office. Everybody wants it. Gsa gave it out. We are doing an amazing job for it. It is under construction. The gsa gave it out. Obama gave it out. Trump got it. Now is that good negotiating . It was, in history of the gsa one of the most soughtafter properties ever and trump got it. And people said how did you get when obama is in charge of the gsa . But that is the way it goes, folks, and maybe that is what we need some of. So we need people at the top position that know, because the country has such tremendous potential, unbelievable potential and nobody is using it. And now isis nobody, if i win, nobody would be tougher than donald trump. Nobody. [ applause ] i would hit them so hard and so fast that they wouldnt know what happened. I would find a general remember the old days of general mcarthur and patton and these great generals. We must have somebody in there and i laugh, as i say and it is laugh through tears, as you say, look, they are announcing when they are going to attack the other side. How often do you see that. In two weeks were going to send soldiers over here. And general mcarthur is spinning in his grave when he sees what we do. So you have to hit them hard and firm and you cant play games. You have to go hard and fast and firm. And there is somebody there that will do the job. Now, we have a thinking Bowe Bergdahl. We make a deal Bowe Bergdahl for five killers, territories out there right now trying to kill us. This is the kind of thinking and you dont even hear about it any more. People forget. It is like the oneweek schedule. People forget. The Bowe Bergdahl deal is emblematic of what is going on in this country. All of our deals are like that. And we cant let it continue to happen. Now iran. They cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. And we must protect israel. We must protect israel. [ applause ] as far as our borders are concerned, we need strong borders. We need a wall. If i run, i will tell you, the king of building buildings, the king of building walls, nobody can build them like trump. That i can promise you. I can promise you that. [ applause ] executive order weve got to knock it out, we have to knock it out fast. Common core is bad. Bad. Second amendment is good. Now, really good. Now they want to take away your bullets. I dont know if you have seen it. They cant take away your bullets and now they want the guns. Common core i came down hard on mitt romney because he let us down. He really let us down. That should have been an election that was won. That was an easy election to win. I think probably easier than the next one coming up. There was no excuse for not winning that. I came down very strong. Likewise, jeb bush hes in favor [ booing ] hes in favor of common core and weak on administration. Think on it for a minute. In favor of common core and weak on immigration. Remember the statement they come over for love. That was his stance on immigration. I dont see him winning or i dont see there is any way. You people have to make your own choice. Who knows. [ applause ] we have to rebuild our infrastructure. I go throughout the world and im all over the world and i see china and i see abu dhabi and places that you wont believe. You go to qatar and saudi arabia, you see bridges and tunnels and airports and just roadways that are so magnificent, they are paved in gold and then you come home and you land at la guardia or l. A. X. In los angeles or Kennedy Airport in new york and they are like third world places. Our roads are crumbling, everything is crumbling and were relilding china rebuilding china. It has to stop. And we have the cards. Remember that. We have the cards. Social security, and im the only republican saying this, but we have to make this country rich again. We can do it with smart thinking and we can save Social Security and medicare and medicaid like almost and not cut it like almost every republican wants to do. Now gow after the fraud and abuse but dont cut it. We make the country rich again and take back the jobs from china and other nations and you dont have to cut Social Security and medicare, et cetera. And nobody else is going to tell you that. Were at 18 trillion in debt and very soon going to be a lot more than that and were going to reach 24 trillion. When we do that, that is a sacred number because that is a number from which there is almost no recovery so we better get going and get going fast. I just want to leave this with you. To be a winner you have to think like a winner. Our country hasnt been thinking like a winner. Were totally on the defense being laughed at all over the world for our stupidity, were giving things away. Isis you know where they have their military . We leave it for iraq and isis comes in and takes it. I see these trucks and beautiful tanks, they are all american tanks. We have to use our head, we need brilliant leadership. We can make America Great again. There is tremendous potential in this country and my whole concept is make America Great again. We can do it. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And now we have sean hannity. Where is sean . Come on sean. Get out here sean. Here i am. Give it up for mr. Donald trump. You all doing okay . Do you have chairs or do you want to stand. Lets stand. Okay. First question. By the way it is great to see you. Nice to see you. Dont read into this. This is a donald trump tie. Dont take this as an indication that imzv committed. Bought at macys thats right. Im going to get fired here in a minute. The first question many of my friends ask, okay, you kind of flirted with running before. Last time primarily, i d. And i thought romney could do it and he let us down. I love building. Im building all over the world. More than anything else i love it. My children have grown now, ivanka, don, eric and i can let them run things and i have no problem. But when you build things, it is hard to let someone run because you have things happening. What does a politician do. They run and run. When i do this i give up a lot. Nbc wanted to renew and i said im doing Something Else. So im looking at it very seriously. I dont want what happened to mitt romney to happen again because that was a tremendous blow for this country. Okay. If i had to ask you on a scale of 1100 where are you on the scale in terms of where you think you are in deciding to run. 1100 i would say 7580. I am inclined. I want to do is to badly. I have the theme. Make America Great again. That is what i want to do. We can do that if we have people that know what they are doing and people that are kmet competent. I just had an opportunity to talk to the crude about the crowd about economics with this crowd. 50 million americans in poverty and on food stamps and 92 million americans we dont count them and they say 5. 3 and i think it is over 20 . How would donald trump as president get these people back to work . You have to take the jobs back from china. You have to take the jobs back from mexico. In Iowa Companies are leaving for mexico. They are given an incentive to leave our country and go to mexico. And by the way, mexico is the next china. Mexico is not our friend. I hate to tell you. Im not just talking about the border. Mexico is ripping off the United States big, big league and we have to do something. But jobs going to mexico china and brazil and weve lost our Manufacturing Base. Sean, you hear about apple it is based here but they do the work and make the product in china. It is a wonderful place and i have tremendous experience with china. Ive made a lot of money with china. And hi some pretty hard and i had some pretty hard times with china and i came out on top. Believe me this country can come out on top. Let me ask i think everybody has to have a vision. If i were to ask you, you become president , your top five agenda items, what are they . Well lets start with isis. You have to hit them and hit them hard. You have to get rid of that whole situation. And if would ask me that question two or three years ago it wont have been the first thing on the agenda but right now it is so severe and so bad and i said take the oil, they have the oil. Isis first. Obama care i would repeal it and get something so much better and so important. You look at every aspect of government looking at regulation and epa and you cant move. Everything you want to do is stopped. You have to do that. I would build a tremendously strong military. Our military has been has been let go and it has been let go badly. And you know being in the real estate business, all of the time i get these listings for army bases for sale and they are selling everything. I said arent we going to have army bases left. All of the time so many bases are for sale and i set what are we doing about it . The vets i would straight ep out that mess. These vets are amazing people and i would straighten out that mess like you wouldnt believe and would you be in there really fast and working on iran and helping israel bigleague. There wouldnt be speeches made behind my back. I would be helping out israel big league because they deserve the help and iran has very bad intentions. This is negotiating 101. You look at the president negotiating and the drops the sanctions. I would triple up the sanctions and now they are not doing anything and it is horrible. So when bibicomes here it will be interesting but we have a president that doesnt know what he is doing. Let me go back to isis for a second. Lets get specifics here. We see what the jordanians and the egyptians are doing what would specifically you do to a. , stop the iran nuclear program, and b. , defeat isis. Because i dont hear you saying degrade them, i hear you saying defeat. I would hit them hard. And a year ago, you wouldnt have said it or heard it, you would have to have some boots on the ground for a period of time to get rid of the cancer. You may have to have that. Look, they are cutting off the heads of people. They are burning people at the stake. It is like we are living in medieval times. You have to do times. As far as iran is concerned. If they respected our leadership they would negotiate. If we put sanctions all over the place, they would negotiate. They were being hurt by sanctions and now all of a sudden it is like they are not taking us seriously. Like iran, sanctions all over the place, believe me if you have the right negotiator. Part of the problem we have sean, we have diplomats they know nothing about negotiating. If we have the right people we could solve the isis and the iran problem and a lot more quickly than you think. You made a statement about immigration and you said im great at building things and building offenses. It starts with a wall. You have to build and first of all it has to go with mexico having some respect for our country. They dont respect us whatsoever. People are flowing through mexico. And what a lot of people dont realize is the one of the hardest countries to become a citizen of you probably couldnt do it is mexico. The people flow right through mexico and shove them through our boards an we have no borders and you have no idea. And you dont know where these people are coming from. They could have bad intentions and they dont mexico put them in jail or tell them to go home immediately. Mexico is one of the hardest countries in this world to become a citizen of but they flow them through our border. And the other night on Television Im watching thousands of people are walking through the border. You have guards there and they walk right by. What are we stupid . It is hard to believe this could happen. There are so many people in this young people in this room. By the time obama leaves this office well have accumulated more debt thap any other president combined what do you say to them on how a President Trump could balance a budget . I understand debt and understand business more than anyone has run in my opinion than has run for office. I know how to get rid of debt and do it quickly because it is sitting out there and it is a time bomb for this country. Specifically though this is important. I like the penny plan. Cut a penny out of every daughter. It is fine. I like making the country rich again, taking in tremendous amounts of money, stopping china from ripping us and cutting costs but not cutting them when it comes to the military and not cutting them when it comes to Social Security either. I see they i always every time im up here it says wrap up now. I dont know why. And our lightning round. Abortion . Well im very prolife and feel strongly about it. And with exceptions, life of the mother, et cetera. But i am prolife. Rape an incest life and the mother. Yes. Gay marriage. Im for traditional marriage. I think it is a state right issue. Not a judge issue but a states rights issue. Colorado, maurj good or bad . I say it is bad. Medical marijuana is another think and i think it is bad and i feel strongly about that. Hang on. What about the states rights aspect of it. If they vote for it, they vote for it. But they have some big problems going on in colorado. But i think medical marijuana 100 . Let me mention some names to you and just get a quick response. Hillary clinton . Like a one word response . I sort of think of benghazi or failed secretary of state and it was a disaster and i dont think it resonated like it should have. But benghazi was a disaster. They knew from the first minutes of the attack it was a terrormyattack. Which i think will become a bigger opinion. Bill clinton . Nice guy. A lot of problems coming up in the famous island with epstein. eyr . tobama. Incompetent president. You obviously the American Dream has worked in your life and your fathers life and your familys life and i know about your back ground. We are talking about american exceptionalism. In Donald Trumps mind what makes america exceptional and why do you so love this country you want to be the commander and chief . It has a great fabric. Like the people in this room, we have so much going. We need the incentives and we cant take away the incentives. We have a country that will be so great again. We have a country that will be admired by everybody. Right now it is not admired with either countries and i deal with these countries and they talk to me and they say i cant believe chinese are friends of mine saying i cant believe were getting away with this. In saudi arabia they say i cant believe we get away with this. We fight the wards and put up the money. Theyre leaders are so much smarter than we are. And so if we bring it back to the grassroots and keep the incentives going and im telling you the potential of the United States is so incredible if we do it properly and if we have smart really smart leadership. One last question. You almost singlehandedly were out there questioning president obamas background and you said how could you not show a birth certificate, im not bringing up that issue and you wanted to see his College Records. Some people have criticized you for asking those questions and what is your response . I would still like to see his College Records and see a couple of things. Im not looking at his marks. He wrote a book when he was a young man and it said born in kenya. I would like to see his College Records. I think it is important. As far as the birth certificate, Hillary Clinton wanted his birth certificate. She was a berth birther and she couldnt get it. John mccain fought viciously to get his birth certificate. He failed and he couldnt get it. And trump comes along and im not a sitting senator im not a good anything else, a Good Business man. But trump comes along and says birth certificate, a lot of people question it, and i question it but Hillary Clinton wants it and john mccain wants it and i wanted it and he didnt do it for them he did it for me and now we have to find out whether or not it was real. Cpac give it up. Donald trump. [ applause ] thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please almost senator rand paul. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. There comes a time there time comes a time in the history of nations where fear and forgetfulness cause a nation to hesitate and to waiver and perhaps even to succumb. When that time comes those who love liberty must rise to the occasion. Will you will you, lovers of liberty, will you rise to the occasion . [ cheering and applause ] when politicians accept censorship, when politicians accept imprisonment without trial, when politicians accept torture, even of the innocent, as necessary then lovers of liberty must rise. [ applause ] we must rise and stand with our forefathers who stared down the king. We must rise as free men and women and reclaim our birth right. We must protect and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Our freedom is at risk from a Supreme Court that fails to protect liberty. In the mistake of the century, Justice Roberts affirmed the power of the government to force to you buy insurance. Justice roberts argued that we must presume obama care constitutional. I have a better idea. Why dont we presume liberty. [ applause ] just as we are presumed innocent so too we should be presumed free. President obamas fundamental promise that if you like your doctor that you can keep them was a lie. Obama care at its very core takes away a patients right to choose. I promise you this, as a doctor i will take it and make it my mission to heal the nation, reverse the course of obama care and repeal every last bit of it. [ applause ] we must remember that our rights are unlimited unenumerated and given to us by god. Dont let anyone tell you otherwise. The ninth amendment said those rights not listed are not to be disparaged. You do have a right to privacy. Your rights are who you are. Your rights are what you are. Your rights are in your dna and the government can quite frankly get over it. [ applause ] to defend our country we need to gather intelligence on the enemy. But when the intelligence director lies to congress, how are we to trust them . Are we to trust them to collect and hold every americans phone records . I say that your phone records are yours. I say that the phone records of lawabiding citizens are none of their damn business. From within our freedom is threatened by debt and by a government that regulated everything that moves. We borrow a Million Dollars a minute. The president said he doesnt know where to cut. How about we start with a 2. 4 million they spent on origami condoms. Dont tell me there is no place to cut. Our freedom is also threatened from outside of our borders. We must protect ourselves from jihadists without losing who we are as a people in the process. We must think before we act. We should promote stability, not chaos. In the middle east, one form of tyranny often replaces another. When secular despots are overthrown, chaos kmums and hillarys war in libya is an example. Hillarys war made us less stave and they run amuck. They swim in our swimming pool. Hillarys war in libya allowed thousands of surface to air missiles to fall into the hands of radical islamists as hillary was declaring winning in libya, the ambassador was pleading for more security. When i asked Hillary Clinton if she read the ambassadors cables reading for help she answered no as if she had more important things to do. I believe Hillary Clinton abduction for her dereliction of duty should forever preclude her from office. [ applause ] its time for Hillary Clinton to permanently retire. In the middle east a dangerous and barbaric cult has arisen. Isis is a threat to our embassy in baghdad and our consulate in irbil. Isis is arming rebels in the syrian civil war. When i voted against arming the rebels in syria, i warned these arms might end up in the hands of jihadist and one day we might be forced to go back to fight against our own weapons. Within a year that prediction came true. Without question, we must now defend ourselves and american interests from this bar bearus aberration. But it troubles me we must now fight against our own weapons. We need a National Defense robust enough to defense against saul attacks and moderate enough to deter all enemies and nimble enough for our interests and we need a Foreign Policy that encourages stability not chaos. At home, conservatives understand that the government is the problem, not the solution. But as conservatives we should not succumb to the notion that a government inept at home will somehow become successful abroad. [ applause ] that a government that cant even deliver the mail will somehow be able to create nations abroad. Without question we must be strong. Without question, we must defend ourselves. I envision an america with National Defense unparalleled undefeatable and unencumbered by nation building. I envision a National Defense that promotes as reagan put it, peace through strength. We must realize, though, that we do not project strength by borrowing money from china to send it to pakistan. It angers me to see mobs burning our flag and chanting death to america in countries that receive our foreign aid. I say it must end. I say not one penny more to these haters of america. At home our nation needs new ideas and new answers to old problems. Martin luther king spoke of two americas. He described them at two starkly different American Experiences that exist side by side. In one america, people experience the opportunity of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in the other america people experience a daily ugliness that dashes hope and leaves only the fatigue of despair. I was born into the america that experiences and believes in opportunity but my trips to ferguson and to detroit and atlanta and chicago have refueled what i consider to be an undercurrent of unhes unease in our country. Liberal policies have failed our poor communities. Rur schools are not equal and the poverty gap continues to widen. It is time for a new way. A way predicated on opportunity and freedom. Those of us who have enjoyed the American Dream must break down the wall that separates us from the other america. The president s answers to raise taxes again, i believe we should do the opposite. I propose we cut everyones taxes from the richest to the poorest. In the coming weeks i will propose the largest tax cut in American History. A tax cut that will leave more money in the paychecks of every worker in america. My tax plan will get the irs out of your life and out of the way of every job creator in america. My plan will also cut spending and balance the budget in just five years. At to fix washington we cant have business as usual. Often bills are plopped on our desk with only a few hours to review. No one and i mean no one is able to read what is in the bill. I propose something truly outrageous. Congress should read every bill. [ applause ] congress should also live under the laws they pass. I have a constitutional amendment that says Congress Shall pass no law that exempts themselves. And finally, if they wont listen we should limit all of their terms and send the career politicians packing. [ applause ] and while were at it maybe we ought to limit the terms of outofcontrol federal judges as well. We need to return to our founding principles, stand up for the entire bill of rights. Our future can include a road back to prosperity and back to respect home and abroad. It should include a balanced budget and a simple fair tax system. A government that protects your rights and youre security. It should include a stronger, better, more agile military. It is time for a new way. A new set of ideas. A new leader. One you can trust. One who works for you and above all its time for a new president. [ applause ] [ chanting ] i believe that america has much greatness left, but we must believe in ourselves believe in our founding documents, believe in the Economic System that creates more stuff for more people than at any time in recorded history. American innovations have changed the world for the better. America is an idea factory and there are ideas yet to be born. You and your friends create those ideas. You are americas greatest hope americas dream. Our best days are ahead of us. It is not the desire for wealth that drives us, what drives us is the desire for freedom. The history of man is the mystery of men and women striving to restrain the power of government and stand for freedom and will you stand with me and fight for freedom, will you vote for freedom . [ applause ] let us rise let us rise as one and shout from the top of our lungs for freedom now for our godgiven liberty and lets stand together for our god given right for freedom and prosperity for all. Thank you. And god bless you, and god bless america. [ applause ] senator. Thank you. Senator. Thank you. Senator, im charlie gireaux and im here standing with rand to ask you a couple of questions that have come from the audience here in the hall and others throughout the building and were delighted to have you here and appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions from a live audience. First of all, what do you think republicans have to do in order to rin over win over libertarians and moderate ss elect rand paul. Good answer. I think we do a great job protekding protecting the Second Amendment, but we have to defend the whole bill of rights. To defend the second amondayment to defend the Second Amendment you have to defend the Fourth Amendment if people can come in your house without a warrant, then you dont have protect of the wu÷ amendment. If you want to talk about people who havent been concerned about being republican or listening to a republican the fifth, the sixth sixth. We should have speedy trials. Khalif prouder was a 16yearold was an africanamerican kid from the broncosx, he spent three years in rikers and never tried. He tried to commit suicide four times. If you ask him or his mom or anybody that lives around him in the bronx whether the bill of rights is being defended, he lives in the other America Martin luther king talked about. If we want to get new people in our party and libertarians and others that believe in privacy what we have to do is say to people like khalif prouder is that Big Government is not only a problem with taxes, but with sometimes not giving justice to those who deserve it. Somebody knew the answer you were going to give and they sent us this followup question. If you could have just one constitutional amendment, what would it be . Term limits. [ cheering and applause ] senator, what is your biggest criticism of congress right now . That their disfunctional. That even when we agree on things we cant get anything done. I had a bill last year with the majority leader and couldnt get it done. The democrat majority leader, couldnt get a vote on it. It is a disfunctional. We go week after week and week and dont get things done. One of the biggest problems is the debt. Were borrowing 1 million a minute and the debt continues to grow by leaps and bounds because congress doesnt do our job. Were supposed to have 12 vid spending bills and individual spending bills and we dont. We lurch from one spending deadline to another. It is like hurry up. Either the government will shut down or you have to pass everything together. So i say why dont we do our job and pass each individual spending bill on its own and control the power of the purse. Time for one more and a quick followup. How do you respond to conserve conservatives and republicans who say you arent tough enough on your stand in Foreign Policy . I think the question on Foreign Policy is a valid and important one. When i look at government i think that the most important thing we do at the federal government level is defend our country. Without question. Bar none. National defense is a constitutional function, it is the most important function we have. When i look at spending when i look at what we should spend money on, this or National Defense or this or that or National Defense for me the priority always is National Defense. When we get to Foreign Policy though, were not all the same. Not all republicans are the same on Foreign Policy. There is a spectrum. On one end there are people who believe we should never been anywhere outside of our borders. On the other end there are people who believe we should be anywhere all of the time. I think really in the end what, we should do is obey the constitution. The constitution says that war, when we go to war, should be declared and should be initiated by congress. Final question, senator. And we appreciate your being with us and the time limits that youve kept. Is naturally curly hair the greatest at tribute the good lord could give anybody. My only comment is, is that really his hair, could that be that bad . And one time i was at a rally in litchfield, kentucky and she grabbed me by the hair and said i wanted to see if it was real or not. Thank you, senator. Thanks, everybody. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome senator Rick Santorum. Thank you very much. It is great to be back here in cpac. Let me first do what i always do which is introduce my family who is joining me here today. My coauthor in life and our newest book, bellas gift. My wife karen who is down here and the rest of our seven children. Everybody here but bella are here today. So thank you so much for welcoming us and welcoming them. Thank you. Three years ago i stood on this stage and my family was behind me. We had just come from a few days before having swept missouri, minnesota and colorado in the 2012 primary election cycle. After that sweep the wall street journal editorialized by my economic plan saying it was a supply side economic plan for the working men and women of this country. I talked about in this speech that we needed to unite america. With someone who is profreedom profamily, progrowth and also proworker. We have we have seen that wages over time have stagnated. The economy, medium income is declining in america. We need someone who can unite this country around a vision, an Economic Vision that can pull us together. A vision that is focused on working men and women who are struggling in america today. A vision that says we can restore our Manufacturing Base and improve our infrastructure, we can increase our energy development. All to help the people in this country who are lagging behind and feeling like Neither Party really cares about them or talks about them. I talked 70 of americans who dont have a college education. And what we need to do to restore Vocational Education in our high schools to put parents back in charge, not the government. Back in 2012 i wasnt for common core. And today im still not for common core. After the campaign i wrote a book called blue collar conservative laying out the vision for how we can unite america around helping those who are struggling in our society. I was doing a book signing, in demine ats moines at the republican state committee. I happened to be in iowa passing through. And a woman dropped a book on the in front of me and i said, who would you like to make this out to. She said, janice. I said nice to meet you, janice. She said thats not my name. I said who is janice . Thats my hairdresser. I said, your hairdresser . She said, yeah. We dont agree on anything, but she loves you. I said really . I got to ask you i said why would your liberal hairdresser love me . And without missing a beat, she says, because youre for the little guy. Of all the workers in america only 10 own their own business. 90 are little guys. Pundits have often wondered how i was able to win 11 states, even though i was outspent four and five to one. They deposited it was because i was last man standing. They were wrong. I won because i stood for someone, the little guy, the american worker. And if were going to win in 2016, we need to stand for the little guy too. 2016 is going to be a different election, though. The world has changed. We dont need someone with a strong economic plan. Thanks to the Obama Clinton Foreign Policy team we have gone from a policy of peace through strength to a policy of lead from behind and it has been disastrous for the American People. And for the world. And in fact, the president s popularity is so bad around the world today, that i heard this report from a source that the kenyan government is actually developing proof that barack obama was actually born in america. The fact of the matter is were in a very serious time. I was in israel six months ago and spoke with one of Prime Minister netanyahus senior advisers, and he pulled me aside and he soberly said, in 2016, America Needs to elect a war time president. The world the world is a dangerous place. It is more complex. We need someone with real experience to be able to rebuild our military. The likelihood that were going to face a former secretary of state means that we need someone who has a long and deep understanding of the threats that confront us particularly the threat of radical islam. To be clear, it wasnt just the president s liberal outlook but his profound lack of experience that created the problems for us here in america. Commander in chief is not an entry level position. And the oval office is no place for on the job training not in times like this. You see, i like the president. I have eight years of service in the Senate Armed Services committee where i was a subcommittee chairman overseeing science and technology. Before and after 9 11, i worked to retool our military, to something we called asymmetric threats we now call terrorism. After 9 11, i took a deep dive to try to understand this new enemy of al qaeda. And i found out it wasnt a new enemy. This is an enemy that has been attacking the west for over a thousand years, a thousand years trying to expand their territory in the west. We need someone who understands that and understands that the radicals today are simply working out of the playbook of over a thousand years ago. Over the past few months, we have seen the American Public rightly question the president about his refusal to identify the enemy. Theyre asking the question, how can we defeat what we refuse to understand. We cant. We cant defeat somebody unless we understand them and fashion a plan to defeat them. But refusing to embrace the reality of evil is nothing new. In the 1930s, Winston Churchill warned the world about the gathering storm and the world sat quietly by until it was almost too late. In 2006 through 2009, i traveled the country. I gave my farewell address to the United States senate about what i called the gathering storm of the 21st century. The rise of militant was cal islam. I was called everything from chicken little to a war monger. The first speech i gave was in the summer of 2006 after i worked to try to pass a sanctions bill on the Iranian Nuclear program that i had authored. We failed by a few votes barack obama, joe biden, Hillary Clinton, john kerry all voted against iranian sanctions. At the beginning of the understanding of the development of the Iranian Nuclear program. I said in that speech that defining this war as a war on terror was like defining world war ii as a war on blitzkrieg. Terrorist tactic it is not an ideology. We have moral clarity and courage back in world war ii to call nazi germany nazi germany. Even though only 7 of germans were nazis. Some have suggested that only a small percentage of islam is radical or militant. Even if. 1 , one in a thousand muslims are radical violent islamists, that number is larger than the active duty miltitary of our country. This is not a jv team. This is not a threat to be passed off. In the 1930s we should have known, we could have known what the threat was. All we needed to do was read the book. Hitler told us what he was going to do. We chose to ignore him. Al qaeda, isis, iran, the muslim brotherhood. All we need to do is read their books and well know what they want to do to the west. Isis wants to establish a seventh century caliphate they want to behead crucify, burn torture, enslave. In response, the Obama Clinton Foreign Policy team refused not only to acknowledge it but insist that the greatest threat to American Security is global Climate Change. Ladies and gentlemen, we dont need a weather man in chief. We need a commander in chief to run this country. We need to start by crushing isis now. We must start in iraq, we need to get isis out of iraq. The first thing we need to do is arm the kurds. Instead of sending them bandages and body bags, we need to send them weapons to drive isis out of mosul and out of iraq. We need to increase aid to jordan, egypt, they want to fight. Theyre warning us of this problem. And America Needs to engage. We need to engage with a twoprong strategy. Number one, we need to put boots on the ground. 10,000 is what general jack testified to. 10,000 to coordinate air strikes, to provide advice training and intelligence. And yes we need to do air strikes. Not five or ten a day. Not a Public Relations stunt that the president is doing today. But we need to take serious destroying isis. We need to hit isis, to defeat them. If isis wants to establish a seventh century caliphate, lets oblige them by bombing them back to the seventh century. Finally, finally i agree with president with Prime Minister netanyahu. Even if the world bans together to defeat isis if iran gains a Nuclear Weapon we will have failed our time. In the end, Prime Minister netanyahu would not be coming to america. He would not be risking the most important National Security arrangement that israel has. If it wasnt for the fact that he believed in his heart that irans and the United States Nuclear Negotiation is going to end up being an existential threat to his country. This is a dangerous time. But heres the good news. Elections matter. 2016 is an opportunity, ladies and gentlemen just like 1980 was. In 1980, it took one election and one president to return americas standing and to defeat evil in the world. In 2016 we need another president , prepared to make america again that shining city on a hill for all to see. Thank you. And god bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, senator santorum. Great to have you this afternoon. Thank you. At this time, were taking questions from conservatives all across the country. They have been tweeting their questions. Guys, the cpacq and the media who considers any of the speakers a president ial candidate is being subjected to this question and answer period, just so you know. Being fair to everyone. So my question to you is given the worlds Current Events would you strengthen our military . I think that the most important job of the federal government is National Security. I mean, i just listened to rand paul one thing that senator paul and i agree with. We just disagree on how we do that. I think we need a robust military to defend ourselves, to protect our security interests, and to make sure that we can be a reliable ally. We need to lead the world. If america doesnt lead the world, someone else will. Look to whats going on in russia. Look to whats going on in china. Look to whats going on in the middle east. Look at what is happening down in central and south america. Other leaders are rising as we recede and the world is not a better and safer place. So america must be strong and it must lead. Thank you. Second question is, do you think your strong religious beliefs will intimidate some of the more moderate voters . You know, one of the great things about this country is were a country that is passionate about freedom. Passionate about people being able to live their lives. I find it somewhat disturbing that sometimes thats okay unless youre someone who happens to be religious in the world today, that somehow or another youre not allowed to be passionate about that, not allowed to stand up and articulate that. I will fight and i have fought for everybody to be able to come into the Public Square and make their case, whether i agree with it or not. Ill fight to my dying day to make sure you have the right to do that. And increasingly were finding that unless you have a particular point of view, youre not welcome anymore. That is a dangerous thing. That is a dangerous thing for america. Separation of church and state is not in the constitution. Freedom of religion is. And thats what i will stand for. Thank you. Next question is what is the best way to dismantle common core . Well, i think were starting at it. I think we have a bill that ive been supportive that senator david vitter introduced in the senate, that from the federal level would put the brakes on common core. I think it is important that since the federal government through the Obama Administrations programs to provide all sorts of money for states to adopt common core, that we should cut off that mup and give the states the flexibility to seat money how they see fit, not how arne duncan sees fit. Thank you senator. We really appreciate you being here today. We wish you the best of luck and god bless. Thank you very much. God bless you all. Americas heart they say our reputation needs a new coat of paint and a delicate melody but i said i like the bruises because the melody dont mean a thing if we dont have the strength to say i wont be made to ever feel ashame ed ashamed and im American Made i got American Parts i got american faith in americas heart go on raise the flag i got stars in my eyes im in love with her and i wont apologize they say that we need changing they seem to get it wrong but i say that i still believe greatest innovator liberator cultivator freedom knows so i suggest you take a look inside and i think you changed already you went and lost your pride but im American Made i got American Parts i got american faith in americas heart go on and raise a flag i got stars in my eyes im in love with her and i wont apologize dress it up so you dont recognize her shell still be there if you wake up in the night because the mother can always find her child even when that child dont know hes lost im American Made i got American Parts i got american faith in americas heart go on and raise the flag i got stars in my eyes im in love with her and i wont apologize im in love with her and i wont apologize ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage Zach Dasher Larry suluv and david bossy. Lets be awkward. Youre going to be awkward behind me . Here we are, all the way from the banks of the washataw river to cpac outside of our nations capital. You may not know me, but you probably do know some of my fame ous family members. Theyre down here somewhere. I got al and Lisa Robertson from duck dynasty. Just came out with their new book. Also Willie Robertson as well. You know willie, right . And my wife jill is here as well. My beautiful bride. And backstage we got somebody else you might meet in a second here. Why are we here . Well, i ran for congress this last time around and barely lost, but along the way i asked phil to help me out with my campaign and i was taking these different events with me, where our supporters were at and phil would always begin with the same speech. He would point his thumb at me and say i vetted this one for 37 years, since the day he burst forth from my sisters loins. If youre running for congress, let me tell you thats not the image you want the constituents to think of you. And he would do this every time we went to speak somewhere. The night before the election, were about to go on sean hanitys show and he says, is there anything you want me to steer clear of . I said yeah, that thing about the sisters loins, lets cut that. No sisters loins, got that. Five seconds into the interview, guess what he did. He said, sean, i tell you this one here we vetted for 37 years since the day he burst forth from my sisters loins. Now were outside the district of louisiana, 3 Million People across the United States and this is their view of me. I learned something that night about phil. And ill use a southern term here. Aint nobody going to tell phil what to say. This is a man who speaks his mind and how appropriate, sometimes it is embarrassing for me, but he always speaks with passion. I think it is important in this culture today, we live in america where we are in bound by the chains of Political Correctness. But thats not how this country was founded. We were founded by men like Thomas Jefferson, and what did he say when he made that famous argument for why we should be free from the tyranny of a king over in england. He said, we hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are what . Created equal. And then endowed by who . Not your senator, not your governor not king george and certainly not king obama. We were endowed by our creator, with certain unalienable rights life,ly ty lyiberty, and as phil would say, happy, happy happiness. We can clap at that. I think the original conservative edmund burk said it best when he said, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph, he said it for good men to do nothing. It is a appropriate that this award be given to phil a man who is doing something by groups and organizations like breitbart and Citizens United who are doing something to advance the conservative movement. So it is my honor to bring larry suluv to the stage right now. Thank you. Thank you very much. Im larry, president and ceo of Breitbart News network. You know thank you. Thank you. You know three years ago this sunday we lost a great man, a great patriot, a loving father, and husband, and friend and a giant in this movement. Andrew breitbart. Andrew breitbart was a fighter. He loved nothing more than to stand up to bullies, especially ones in the media. I was there when he told his oldest son, and his oldest son at the time was in elementary school, if you ever see another kid being picked on, you go over and you stand up for that kid. And if you get in a fight and if you get in trouble with your principal, thats okay because youre not in trouble with me. Andrew would love would love that this award is being given to phil. A guy who speaks his own mind who will not compromise his conservative principles and who wont be bullied by the Mainstream Media or the politically correct police. An true andrew would love that this award is being given to phil because from andrews perspective, the fight was primarily about the culture more than politics. You know he used to always say politics is downstream from culture and he would call himself a reluctant cultural warrior. Well, 80 million a year in advertising sales, and over 400 million a year in merchandising sales is a pretty good sign that duck dynasty is helping win the culture war. You see, they just dont get why duck dynasty is a success. They dont get why this deeply american, you know, profoundly religious Christian Family is warmly welcomed into so many millions of homes every week. So the media will try to destroy them and try to deny their voice. R like andrew they dont care. Doesnt change them. And they dont take crap from anyone. You know last year we gave this award to mark levine who is certainly a fighter in his own style. Absolutely. And this year we give it to phil, a fighter in his own style. And i think phil is a very very, very fitting recipient of this Citizens United Andrew Breitbart defender of the First Amendment award. And we like to thank david bossy and Citizens United for partnering with us and giving out this award. Thank you very much. Well thank you all. First, i want to thank matt slap and the aclu for making the andrew bite breitbart award part of the cpac official schedule. This is a big honor for us and big step for the Andrew Breitbart award. My name is david bossy president of Citizens United. And with we are proud of sponsering the Citizens United theater here at cpac for the seventh year in a row to show some of our terrific documentaries and i know a lot of you have been in there over the last few days. Im really just tickled. I needed to get a little bit pinched this morning because i knew that folks that we see on television, the robertson clan was coming to town. And getting a chance to visitcqr with them today has been truly an honor. So first before i get to the award presentation, i want to take a few minutes and talk about our conservative values and our principles and what they mean for the 21st century and how we need to rededicate ourselves to educating younger generations about our beliefs, especially in the coming post obama era. America is at a crossroads today. And consequential decisions need to be made about americas next steps. These are critical decisions that will impact all of our futures. We must reverse the malaise of the obama era. We must return to the principles and ideals that america is the greatest nation on earth. And in doing so will not be easy. But we are an exceptional nation and we can once again be that shining city on the hill that president reagan used to talk about. We must defend the freedoms laid out in our bill of rights and thats what brings us here to todays ceremony. The First Amendment, the First Amendment is an enormous part of what makes us who we are as a nation and as a people. Freedom of speech, religious liberty, the right to petition our government for a redress of grievances. Thankfully we have leaders willing to live out that example and stand up for our sacred First Amendment rights. The great Andrew Breitbart was one of those people. His tireless and Fearless Defense of the First Amendment made him a hero amongst all conservative movement leaders. And a new media icon. Andrew was my dear friend and i miss him greatly and i know many of you do as well. He was a true fighter for the constitution and the values that made America Great. He waged a oneman war against the bias and deceitful liberal media, exposing them for what they are. And it is in that spirit that i, and Citizens United and Breitbart News steve bannon, larry suluv, alex marlo and john con developed this award. And are proud to present the Second Annual Andrew Breitbart award this year. And those who have received it those who will receive it have demonstrated a fearlessness to take on the media. A fearlessness to speak truth to power. As we said, we gave it last year to mark levin, a wonderful recipient. And this year is no different. A recipient of the breitbart award must face down the forces of secularism and Political Correctness in our society. They must be someone who refuses to back down in the face of withering personal professional and very public attacks. Phil robertson is such a man. He is Phil Robertson is an entrepreneur, building a multiMillion Dollar business out of the shed of his rural Louisiana Home before sparking a cultural phenomenon with their hit series duck dynasty. Along with his lovely wife miss kay, and his sons willie jep, chase and al, the robertson clan have taken the nation by storm with their humor and their unwavering faith. It has been a so refreshing to have people who openly love god this country and put their family first on our televisions every week. Phil and his family phil and his family have proven what andrew always knew to be true, the traditional American Values are popular. And that given the chance the American People will embrace them every time. Duck dynastys success proves that and phils strength in standing up for those values proved that he is a defender of the First Amendment. When he spoke up for traditional christian values he was mercilessly attacked by the cultural marxist. But phil stood strong and refused to back down. With the support of his family he has continued to speak out in favor of the bible and traditional values and duck dynasty is going strong. The First Amendment guarantees americans the right to speak freely and practice the religious of their choice without fear of government intervention. And there is nothing the liberals can do about it. I, for one, am thankful that Phil Robertson took his stand, by standing up and defending his right to speak to his faith. Phil struck a blow for all americans of faith ensuring that religious values and conservative ideals will not be erased from american discourse. Phil robertson is not alone in this fight. Everyone in this room, everyone across america during that crisis took forward and stood with Phil Robertson and i know that all of us will continue. Andrew breitbart knew how to fight the good fight. Andrew breitbart was an expert at taking on the corrupt media culture and i know he would be proud today to stand here by Phil Robertson and his family on that battlefield. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor in welcoming the 2015 Andrew Breitbart defender of the First Amendment award winner the Duck Commander himself Phil Robertson joined by his incredible wife miss kay. Dont back down. All of us ought to be able to speak freely where we didnt have to be awarded for it. Right . Miss kay, hold my award. For you potential candidate ss, now look to keep you out of trouble, and to keep the scandals down, let me give you a little word of advice. You carry two things with you wherever you go in case one of you gets to be the president of the United States, make sure you carry your bible with you and your woman. Im just saying safety, safety. The good news is im not running for anything. And as far as i know im not running from anything. Im going to give you three little word ss that rarely if ever ever, im trying to think of the last time the last time i heard a politician utter these three words was scott walker but i spoke i spoke before him at the same event and i reminded the people of the three words and he got up behind me and he said, im fixing to move on what that old dude said. The three words that youve never heard from a politician, i love you. You ever heard that . Think about it. When is the last time you heard a politician say, i love you . I racked my brain. If they keep this up, and they dont start telling us at least every once in a while, that they love us, im going to begin to conclude maybe they dont. I sincerely love you and by the way, my love for you is not contingent on how you feel about me. You say, well what if we hate your guts . Do you still love us . Sure. You say, you love us and youre not worried about how we feel about you, not one bit . Dont forget that. If youre ever let me word it this way. If you ever invite me some christian people, you invite me to a Prayer Breakfast, you know what im going to do as soon as i get there . Pray pray. Offer a prayer. Im going to shut up and sit down. T it is a safer course of action. If youre wondering who i am by the way, these are my Church Clothes clothes. I never got around to buying a suit, not yet. Im 68. You say, phil, are you going it make it through this thing without a suit . Irregardless of me not being able to go on the floor of the house of representatives without a suit on, according to old john boehner, hey, john, i have my best clothes on. Boehner, heres a news flash just make sure you pass good bills coming out of that house that affects my life and dont worry about the clothes on their backs. Just pass good legislation. I feel better about you. You say, who did you come with . Who are you with . What group are you with . Ill be with the father the son, the holy spirit and sapanaro. Whos that . In case two things erupt, heart trouble or gunfire, you want sapanaro there. Thats why hes with me. Hes seated in the audience. Im a godloving, biblebelieving, guntoting capital ist capitalist. Always remember when you hear a guy or a gal add infinitum attack the results of capitalism, which is capital and you have a steady attack on those people who receive the capital, thats what you get from capitalism, you get capital. When you hear someone bad mouthing them, ad infinitum, you can be sure of one thing, hes not a capitalist. I never heard a capitalist bad mouth the result of capitalism. Have you . Not one. I got the news that i didnt build Duck Commander down there, im, like miss kay and i, my four boys down on the river bank, and some dude is telling me, you didnt build that business. Im, like, yes, i did. And i will add i will add we built that business with no government assistance. I can guarantee you that. Some of you are going to think as much as i love you, youre going to say, phil, our problem with a guy like you is dude, youre just a little too religious. Just a little too much. So for you, im going to give you a few quotes. The general most earnestly requires and expects due observance of those articles of war which forbid profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness. And in like manner requires and expects of all officers and all soldiers not engaged on actual duty a punctual attendance of Divine Services to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense. No cursing in the American Army and nobody getting drunk either. George washington said that, hes the father of your nation for crying out loud. I have a question for you here, gop. Nobody getting drunk in the army. I would say George Washington was pretty religious, what do you think . The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether americans ought to be free men or slaves, whether they ought to have any property they can call their own, whether their houses and farms ought to be pillaged and destroyed and consigned to a state of wretchedness. The fate, he said this in 1776 july 2nd, the fate of unborn mignons, that would be us down the line the fate of us will now depend under god on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy, the brits, leaves us no choice but a brave resistance or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. Our own countrys honor calls upon us for a rigorous and manly exertion and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us rely on the goodness of the cause. And the aid of the supreme being in whose hands victory is to animate and encourage us to a great and noble action oh was he godly. Was he ever godly. Almighty god, we make our earnest prayer that thou will keep the United States in thy holy protection and thou will incline the hearts of the citizen citizens citizens. Im reading you grand old party, what the founding father of your nation said. That the citizens will cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And particularly for their brethren who served in the field, the veterans. Finally thou will most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, to demean ourselves with that charity humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the divine author, hes talking about jesus, of our blessed religion. And without a humble invitation of whose example on these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. You must be godly and must have jesus. Grant our supplication, we beseech these, through jesus christ, our lord, amen. Thats the kind of prayer the guy at the Prayer Breakfast should have said. If i could have entertained are you all listening . If i could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the constitution framed by the convention where i had to honor to preside, it fit the constitution might possibly endanger the religious rights of any of our society. Certainly i never would have placed my signature on it. He said if i would have read that constitution and it infringed on our religion, i would have never signed that thing. I have often expressed my sentiments that any man conducting himself as a good citizen and being accountable to god almighty along for his religious opinions ought to be protected and in worshipping the deity according to the dictates of his own conscience. Dont get in the way of religion, according to the founder of your country. There is no room for government to attack it for any reason. According to George Washington john adams suppose a nation in some distant region, your second president is speaking. Suppose a nation in some distant region, he wrote this in his diary, should take the bible for their own law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the presipts there exhibited. Everybody would be obliged to temperance truefrugality, kindness and to piety love and almighty god, what a utopia. What a paradise this region would be. Look at us now. States, im still quoting what your second president said. Im just giving you a picture of the ones who founded your country if you think im just a little too religious for your blood. States may plan and speculate for liberty, and i mean is there a lot of them. But it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. And if this cannot be inspired into our people, in a greater measure than they have now, they may change their rulers in the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty, you lose your religion according to john adams, and there goes your morality, were almost there. In fact i hate to admit since im giving you the state of the union address, i hate to admit i got my facts from the cdc the day before yesterday, 110 million million, 110 million americans now have a sexually transmitted illness. 110 million. Im looking at it i said i dont want you america to get sick sick. I dont want you to become ill. I dont want you to come down with a debilitating disease. I dont want you to die early. Youre disease free and shes disease free, you marry, you keep your sex right there. You wont get sick from a sexually transmitted disease. Come on. In is there is a penalty to be paid from what the beatniks and the hippies. You say what do you call those with the sexually transmitted illnesses. It is the revenge of the hippies. Sex, drugs and rock n roll have come back to haunt us in a bad way. I report you decide. I mean, im reading this stuff from the cdc and it says, how many sexual encounters does one have to have to catch a sexually transmitted illness. It said, one. Im figuring out the odds on that one. How many seconds does it take to get Genital Herpes . It said 30 seconds. Im, like, whoa thats pretty quick. You want toa biblical medically safe option . One man, one woman, married for life. And if you hate me because i told you that, i told you my love for you is not contingent on how you feel about me. I love you anyway. I dont want to see you die early or get sick. Im trying to help you for crying out loud. America, if i didnt care about you, why would i bring this up . I wouldnt care. Two minutes and 55 seconds left. Im not even through with my introduction. This is a warmup. With a humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme god and ruler of the universe we must devoutly implore his divine god goodness to protect us, Thomas Jefferson. Father of the decklaration of independence. Now to James Madison father of the constitution of the United States. This constitution was written for a religious and moral people. It is holy inadequate for any other. You know what happened gop . We got too many any others in the white house. It wasnt meant for them. Some people study the constitution to uphold it. But there are some who study it so that they can circumvent it. Right . Stand on the bible. Stand on the constitution. Dont budge. Hold on to your weapons. Thats what brought us here. We had to have all three to run the brits back to where they came from. We had to have all three when the nazis reared their head. You say, the nazis, world domination, it is what hitler had on his mind, territorial conquest. There was no jesus. None. And they were famous for murder right . The send they went up to chinese they started running over china manchuria, they started conquering all the islands. You say what was their game plan . Territorial conquest. Was there any jesus with any of the zero. Not a man. And they were famous for murder, just like the nazis. Josef stalin with the communists, here they come. What were they into . Territorial conquest. Was there any jesus among the communists . None. What were they famous for . Murder. Look at the blood we shed with just those three groups, stopping them. We look up and everybody starts wringing their heads about this isis thing and these muslims. You say, what are they into . Territorial conquest. They took over a whole half of iraq and half of syria. Theyre running wild over there. What in the world are they doing . Territorial conquest sound familiar . Any jesus with them . No sir. What are they famous for . I dont see a dimes worth of difference in any of them. Have to stop them. I believe jesus came down from heaven in flesh 2,015 years ago. I believe he paid for all of my rotten sins and i have a lot. But im not the only one. Every one youve seated in this audience has sinned. A lot. Right . Thats what i thought. I didnt think i was the lone ranger here. So you have a sin problem. You say, i got old enough to know right from wrong and i chose sin. You sinned and you died spiritually. You say whats next for me. A sixfoot hole. It is not if. Youve got6foot hole coming up. So you admit im a sinner, yep. And im going 6 feet deep . Yep. God became flesh 2015 years ago when an atheist says he writes a check out and puts the date down, hes saying, jesus was here. Youre counting time by jesus including you atheists in the crowd. Were all counting time by him. You know what he did . And hes the one whom the cosmos was created, jesus died on the cross to take all your sins. Three days later raise from the dead. That solves your grave problem. So the blood takes care of your sin and the resurrection takes care of your fear of dying. And you say, theres a way off planet earth alive. You got a better story . Lay it on me. All of these isms, atheism, agnosticism, post modernism, idealism, naturalism, what is all that about . Trying to get around what i just told you. Your Founding Fathers were godly. So am i. Im just saying they were godly, they founded the greatest nation on earth. Stand on the word of god. His bible. Hold on with both hands the constitution of the United States. Hold on to your weapons. Thats what brought us here thats what will keep us here. If you mess with that gop, if you dont have spiritual men like the guys i quoted in all of them, i could have been here three hours. You say if you dont have spiritual men making political decisions youre going to lose this country. We are siding at a scale like i have never seen in my lifetime. You say this thing is in danger. I havent given up on it. But the times are getting desperate. Were going to have to suffer through the next two years, gop. Were just going to have to suck it up and suffer through it. You say, but unless, until and unless we get spiritual men in the white house to help turn this thing around, were going to lose it. Just beginning you see what im saying . By the way if you run out of options, you say you want would you gut these bureaucracies if they elected you . Yeah. Would there be any irs . No. Epa gone. I figure about four or five p hands, picking up trucks in each state. Seeing if somebodys dumping pollution in the river. That is the epa. I met the states educate our children and kick the federal government out of our every waking moment in our life. And tell them to quit blowing our money. God help us ladies and gentlemen, from the National Rifle association, please welcome wayne lapierre. Thank you. Thank you very much. Its great to be here at cpac again. Tell me, yall having a great conference . Are you ready to leave here and go out and make a difference for your country and your freedom . You know in novembers elections, we made a difference in this country. We really did make history. We as americans are wary. Were despairing, and were sad. Because so much that we care about we see slipping away. I know you feel it, the threats are all around us. Russias advancing. The Islamic State is consolidating power with beheadings, rapes, murders and atrocities. Theyre carving a bloody trail that leads to our doorstep. Theyre already here. How much longer before the horrors that weve witnessed in paris or in copenhagen come to the supposedly gunfree zone of the mall of america . Think about that. Or for that matter the mall in your town wherever you live. Its not if. Its just when. With fires breaking out around the world, is war on horizon . As americans we feel vulnerable in other ways, too. Our economy is staggering. Our debt is astronomical. Politicians they look at you and they insist its all okay. But ill tell you this ive been on the road for the past two months all over america. And everyone i talk to knows its not okay. They see their freedoms taken away. You cant say this. You cant do that. And you know what, you cant ask why. If you do, youll be shouted down shamed accused, audited investigated. Your motives condemned, and youll be told to shut up. Our right to privacy is unlocked analyzed mined for data cataloged crossreferenced, and filed away for future use faster than you can say the words big brother. Freedom of speech is being smothered under everything from Political Correctness to blackouts. On political speech during election campaigns. Freedom of religion, faces cultural war. Especially if youre not of the right religion. Im not just talking about the christians beheaded by islamic jihadists this month. Im not talking about the kosher deli in paris where people were gunned down. Im talking about here at home. Where if terrorists release a video of a mass murderer of christians called a messaged sign of blood with nation of the cross, the leader of the free world refuses to even acknowledge their motive, their mission or their movement. If socalled gunfree zones supposedly save lives, why doesnt obama simply declare iraq, syria and afghanistan to be one big happy gunfree zone. Have uh yo heard about the latest . Jobs for jihadists . Im for bullets for jihad butchers. They can call us bitter clingers to guns and religion all they want but they will never shake our faith in who we are and what we believe. Our society is changing. Its common now not to know your neighbors. Not long ago kids were embarrassed if moms stood at the bus stop. Now, its normal in our country. Even at home, you got to watch out for your kids. Packers, identity thieves and genuine monsters are just a click away. Authorities tracking license plates of lawabiding citizens. Our health histories, our entire lives are available online. Just waiting for someone to cash in on it all