at 7:30 am eastern on c-span to bring -- c-span2. the mick mulvaney will speak at the and will ronald reagan dinner. live at 7:45 p.m. eastern here on c-span. s yesterdayof cpac' including the criminal justice with van jones. >> ok. i am sorry, i do what i am told. you want me closer? come on, let's get closer. i'm sorry. i was just keeping my respectful distance. there is nothing wrong with that. now we really going to get in trouble. -- i think itt me is awfully important as the chairman, and basically the host for everyone who speaks here, and one of the things we want to do is give you interesting content about the issues that are happening in society -- all of them. we want to give you different perspectives. i think it takes -- some of you know i will go on cnn and msnbc and i went on "the view them cope and i think that is an pretty important thing to do because it is a port for people on the right and on the left to be able to talk to each other in a civil way. i think we have to appreciate the fact van jones has a lot of courage and character to be here today. [applause] people are standing. good. >> i appreciate it. >> we will disagree if we went into all of the political issues, but like every two human beings, there are things we agree on and we are here to talk about one of them. >> on that note, van jones, what are you doing here? [laughter] acluthought it was an gathering. it turns out it is not. >> acu. >> oh! it is almost as good as aclu. i am here because i am concerned. there are battleground issues we don't agree on. we should disagree where we don't agree. democracy means. democracy means you don't have to agree. dictatorship, you have to agree. democracy means you don't have to agree. we should try to fight cleanly. my problem is that the battleground, my problem is they're our common ground issues where we do agree and we won't work together on those all too often. and that has got to stop in america. that has got to stop in america. >> you are one of the few democrats that i have seen that will work with the president. what blowback have you gotten from the left for doing so, for appearing at events like these? >> look, when you say the left, who do you mean? are there people on twitter? >> i might be able to help you with that. >> look, are there people on twitter who say mean things? yes. i'm criminal justice reform, if you're on twitter: at sellout for working with trump on criminal justice reform, here's what i know about you. if you're on twitter, you're not in a federal prison because they don't have twitter in federal prison. i don't have to listen to you. i care about the people who are locked out. step -- what is the second step? what does it look like? is a prosecution? tellis a little bit about it. folks i would say the first thing is pat nolan who runs our center on criminal justice reform committee have not seen pat, you have to go talk to him. his personal story is -- i would almost say it is almost un-american what happened to him. it is a travesty. my opinion, sometimes we criminalize our political disagreements and i think that was a victim of that. it has affected his whole life. where once again their political differences turn into them having to hire a lawyer because people are coming after them. i dig ready to call a truce on these things -- i think we need to call a truce on these things. there are times for special councils, but do you know why they call them special? it should not happen every time. it should be a unique set of circumstances. this has turned into constant. i think we need to have a truce and take our political is ballotnts to the box. >> i think clinton had a special counsel as well. >> he is building democrat who got one. it happens every once in a while. is the only democrat who got one. it happens every once in a while. yeah to do terrible things to get up. >> we don't have time for that. >> if you think it is to have, at a hightough, to be federal level and have a prosecutor come after you -- theseis nothing like people. >> the people who do not have a inlar to their name who are appalachia, native american reservations, when the prosecutors come after them, they don't have the ability to defend themselves. part of what we have to start to recognize here is both parties have sacred dahlias and principles that are being run over by excessive incarceration. your best, the republican party and the conservative movement believe in the idea of liberty, which is limited government and respect for individual rights and dignity. at our best, we believe in the concept of justice -- making sure the little folks don't get run over by the big ones. that is why we tell our kids "liberty and justice for all" because if you have justice without liberty, we want social justice, we want to make sure the little people are not run over but we don't care anything about the individual rights. what we get is totalitarianism. justice without liberty is to tell a terrorism. and if you don't care about the poor in the planet, gives you too much -- too much corporate power in the system. liberty without justice is a nightmare. we tell our kids "liberty and justice for all," because i have never seen a bird that can fly with only a left wing. not even in berkeley. i've never seen a bird fly with only a right wing, not even a mississippi. we need each other. on this issue of criminal justice reform, it is the most anti-liberty, anti-justice thing we have built. i learned it from newt gingrich who i had a tv show with. are doing avan, you bad job on criminal justice reform because you only speak about it from the racial justice perspective. he told me as a conservative -- newt gingrich. he said, now we have a big failed government yurok is the that eats up -- bureaucracy that you that money and since people home bitter and not better. that is wrong. he said the lid to her -- libertarians and my party they get is eating up too much of the right. he said as a christian conservative, where are the second chances? where is the redemption? when they come home, they cannot get a job. they cannot get a student loan. he said, we have to do something i said, where have you been all my life? [laughter] where have you been? that point, who has been better for criminal justice reform, former president obama or president trump? what, as on so many things, both parties should be proud. -- givepresident obama him his credit, now. president obama was willing to raise this issue and willing to reach out to the koch brothers and go into prisons and his attorney general's tried to make some changes. he was not able to get it across the finish line. president trump, to his credit, got it across the finish line and now we have the first setbacks. we have a relay race going. both parties should be proud. >> this is a conservative conference. some people like tom cotton, they said, the first step back is letting out bank robbers, carjackers, letting out felons who assault kids and cops. why is it a good thing that those people are getting out early? >> let me try first quickly. is atry into this issue basic concept, which is we all will spend this whole conference talking about how the federal government gets a lot of things wrong and spends a lot of money getting things wrong. why out of no where do you think someone waves a magic wand and every thing they do when it comes to our federal prison system is unimpeachable? we know as conservatives we should be skeptical of the idea that the government gets everything right. the first step is -- excuse me, the first way to look at this is you look at states like texas. great example because rick perry was just here, our great secretary of energy. what he did in texas, he had financial issues because they were building prison after prison after prison. exit ofed, hey, let's the inmates are closer to their families, let's make sure inmates can learn skills. coming back into society anyway. would you not want them coming back into society with good, healthy family relationships and the ability to get a job? conservative friends who criticize the bill, it is almost like they're trying to find a way it is not perfect. we all know there is now been a perfect piece of legislation to pass. i am sure there are some things that each and everyone of you want to change, but the concepts are as i described. understand this prisoner is coming back to you unless they are a horrible violent felon. i want them coming back into society ready to succeed. , i have to say something against my own interest here. here is the deal. the conservative movement in this country, unfortunately, from my point of view, is now the leader on this issue of reform in that you look at mississippi, totally conservative, former jailer is the governor. thernor bryant has cut prison population and crime at the same time. deal in georgia, cut the prison population and crime at the same time. rick perry cut the prison population in prison expenditures and crime at the same time. ohio, south carolina. what you are seeing now are republican governors being tough on the dollars, tough on crime, and shrinking prison population and showing the rest of the country it can be done. my problem is, i now have a that forive movement libertarian reasons, for christian conservative reasons, and for fiscal reasons, is actually doing a great job on what should be my issue. this is supposed to be my issue. you are stealing my issue. [applause] [laughter] >> they are welcoming you. >> keep going. >> i'm going to stay in my party, but what -- take some credit for dadgum being smart. take some dadgum credit for showing that them a listen, if you take some food -- we had this conversation before. >> don't take my food. we probably don't want to go there, either. >> here is what happened. we passed a bunch of laws 30 years ago, through the book at everybody -- throw the book at everybody for everything, and then we did not look at it again. just like when you get food, he got to eating get a bunch of food and put it in the refrigerator and you only look at it for three weeks, six weeks. you open it up and it does not look like food anymore. this does not look like justice anymore. this system has got so much stupid stuff that we have allowed to accumulate. conservatives and liberals are coming together. as for justice reasons, you for liberty reasons. and we are getting something done. let's keep doing stuff that works. the three issues that we should stay together on -- we should fight on everything else and i'm happy to do it, but the three issues, please, i've been to appalachia and been to the border and native american in the inner city. it is the same pain. poverty, addiction, and a broken criminal justice system in red counties and blue cities, wherever you go. and neither party has done enough for the people at the bottom who have those three issues. yes, and i have to say this, trump on poverty did opportunity zones. on addiction, did opioid packages. and on criminal justice and a first step. i am here to say on those three issues, i will work with or against any republican or any democrat to help the people that need their parties help for way too long. that is why i am here. >> that is commendable. van be willing to walk in the gates of the white house with president trump -- >> which is not easy. >> offer his hand. i think. >> we need more of that in our politics van, you look at this and your passion is clear. could you ever regret this legislation? crime is at an all-time low. we have talked about this in the past. we could see that one person who is released and commits a were black. how do you recover from that and would there ever be any regret on your part does the criminal justice reform passed? >> look, a couple of things in there. economy. strong i think of president obama and president trump for that. we have crime coming down. it was coming down under obama said trump would destroy the economy and he didn't. presidents can be proud, both parties can be proud. now is the time to move. you have a strong economy, we need more workers. you have low crime, we need more. let's hold at the hands of the positive people coming home. some become so it is a terrible dish does something horrible, let's make sure they're held accountable but let's not hold back the thousands who could come back, out of fear. looks david does a lot of work for the acu on this issue. i want to finish with this example. a conservative governor rick perry closed seven prisons. eight prisons. maybe he just closed another one recently. saved the state $3 billion. i was born in 1967 and the crime rate is the same. think shoulds i not be part of this conversation. we're talking about people who committed crimes and in some cases it was the furthest and from a violent crime and sometimes they just made a terrible mistake. we should not put on these people. pat known, the godfather of this movement, said we should stop putting people in prison we are just mad at them for people in prison who we fear. that is a limited understanding of government. i do not want my five girls to be unsafe on the streets. there are people that cannot live amongst us. but there is just a chance that aggressive prosecutors and big government have colored too wide and what those lines are and who does get thrown away. i don't want to throw those people away. every kid that does not give to live up to his full responsibility. than aeded a lot more second chance in my life. my mom's out there. she knows that. don't talk to her. she knows too much. >> math, a final political question. >> i get to determine how much time we have. >> ok, good. >> i don't want to get credit i don't deserve. you mentioned david who is done and it sure in your job. cut 50 directly impacted people who had either been to prison, had loved ones who went to prison by jessica jackson, lewis read, who really fought the fight every day. frankly, like jared kushner, whose father to prison. we have so much of stupidity in the system. take out the stupidity. there's a lot of stuff happening that does not make sense. whos listen to the people have had contact with this big field government bureaucracy and tell you how dumb it is. let's give them some credit. also, there is a way that we have been stereotyping each other and missing each other. i should not have just found out all of the good stuff that conservatives have been doing inside the prison ministry. if you heard some of the stories, your heart would break. .e talk about each other we do not talk to each other. i think about my muslim friends. as i have got to know them, they embarrass me because the muslim community has the lowest crime rate, highest on to partnership entrepreneurship rate. if muslims moved int next me, i would be so happy. we don't talk to each other. undocumented immigrant's have the lowest crime rate. what i'm saying -- >> i told you i control the time. >> what i'm saying is there are stereotypes about trump supporters, stereotypes about straight white men. i'm going to take right now, i'm sitting next to one of the best people in the country. we have got to stop talking about each other and talk more to each other. we will find other areas where there is family leave, infrastructure where we can get stuff done together. i want to speak from my heart and say, this beer of what i spirit of what i'm trying to say is, i've gotten to know more people working on this issue. my mind has been changed. my heart has been changed. cannderstanding of what we do together has been changed, and that needs to happen more is all i am saying. >> on a positive note, we have got to end this. [applause]

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