that. [laughter] we are together, that's right. i think it is awfully , one oft as chairman the things we want to do is to give you interesting content about the issues that are happening in society. all of them. and we want to give you different perspectives. some of you know i will go on cnn and msnbc and i went on the view and i think that is important to do because it is important for people on the right and 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] >> i thought it was an aclu 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. that is what 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 not 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. but here is what i will were on sellout,calling me a 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. >> the first step -- what is the second step? what does it look like? is it prosecutorial reform? tell us a little bit about it. >> 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 pat was a victim of that. it has affected his whole life. he is a good christian man who puts the best face on them. my view as being the chairman of this organization, there are a lot of people like that i should listen to. i approached criminal probably for my own experiences. when you do battle in the swamps and you work for a republican president and you are a staffer, it seems sometimes that political disagreements turn into legal jeopardy for you. it is a strange thing that every modern republican candidate has -- republican president has a special counsel. each and everyone. they always enough find themselves -- the people around themselves find themselves in a situation where once again their political differences turn into them having to hire a lawyer because people are coming after them. 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 we need to take our political disagreements to the ballot box. >> i think clinton had a special counsel as well. >> he is the only democrat who got one. it happens every once in a while. he had to do terrible things to get it. >> we don't have time for that. if you think it is tough, and it is tough, to be at a high federal level and have a prosecutor come after you -- >> it is nothing like these people. >> think about the people who do not have a dollar to their name who are in 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 values and principles that are being run over by excessive incarceration. at 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 totalitarianism. liberty 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. he told me, "van, you are doing a 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 bureaucracy that takes up money and sends people home bitter and not better. that is wrong. he said the 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? >> to that point, who has been better for criminal justice reform, former president obama or president trump? >> i tell you what, as on so many things, both parties should be proud. listen, president obama -- give 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 generals 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. my entry into this issue is a 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. it is a 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. he decided, hey, let's look at the inmates are closer to their families, let's make sure inmates can learn skills. 97% are 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? for my 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 every one 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. >> listen, 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. governor bryant has cut the 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 conservative movement that for 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 take dadgum credit for 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, threw the book at everybody for everything, and then we did not look at it again. just like when you get a bunch of food, you go out to eat, 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. us 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 reservations and 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. >> i have seen 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 horrible act. 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. we have a strong economy. i thank of president obama and president trump for that. we have crime coming down. it was coming down under obama -- liberals said trump would destroy the economy and he didn't. republican say obama had the economy pointed down, when it was up. i think both 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 can be a little bit raver. let's hold at the hands of the positive people coming home. thousands are going to come home and do a good job. if someone comes home and 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. >> 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. violent felons i think should not be part of this conversation. we're talking about people who committed crimes and in some cases it was the furthest thing from a violent crime and sometimes they just made a terrible mistake. we should not put on these people. pat nolan, the godfather of this movement, said we should stop putting people in prison we are 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 get to live up to his full responsibility. i needed a lot more than a second chance in my life. my mom's out there. she knows that. don't talk to her. she knows too much. >> matt, 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 has done an extraordinary 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. let's listen to the people who have had contact with this big failed 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. we 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 entrepreneurship rate. if muslims moved next me, i would be so happy for my children. 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, the 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. my understanding of what we can 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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