We are doing really well, and i just wanted to let you know. I think it is the 119th day we have set a record. So that is good stuff. [applause] so, good afternoon and thank you all for being here as we celebrate a profoundly historic milestone, and a truly momentous achievement. Have within the next short period of time, like two months, we should have about 182 federal judges. How is that . [applause] and i say often, percentagewise you will never beat one man. We know who that is. George washington. 100 . Say,n terms of, i like to quantity and quality, we will be just about number one by the time we finish. Number one of any president , any administration. So i want to thank all of you for the incredible job you have done. That is really fantastic. Thank you very much. It is a big thing. [applause] and they will uphold our constitution as written. These distinguished men and women are some of the most gifted scholars, respected jurists and finest legal minds ever placed on the federal bench. Together we are restoring American Freedom defending , american justice, preserving the extraordinary vision of our founding fathers. We are delighted to be joined on this special occasion by Vice President mike pence. Thank you, mike, very much. [applause] thank you, mike. And attorney general bill barr. Thank you, bill. [applause] i want to thank some real friends of mine, too, and warriors. I have to say, warriors. We have a lot of great warriors in our party. And i think it is necessary, frankly, to be a warrior. If you are not, you have a problem. Right . But i want to thank chairman lindsey graham. Lindsay thank you very much. , great. [applause] a very special man. A man that is so popular in this state i dont think they are going to run anyone against him anymore. They have given that up. Chuck grassley, right . Chuck. [applause] and also with us are senator john cornyn i looked at your polls, nobody is beating you, john. Nobody. And you dont have to worry about beto anymore, that is for sure. From texas. He doesnt like guns, religion, or oil. [laughter] out allump he knocked three categories. Somehow in texas that will not work. I dont think that works anywhere. That does not work anywhere. Good. John cornyn. Mike lee. Mike, thank you very much. [applause] senator ted cruz, also of texas. Thank you, senator. Thanks, ted. Senator tom tillis. Tom, thank you very much. Senator ben sasse. Ben, great, great to have you here. And senator marsha blackburn. Marsha, thank you. Great job you are doing. And josh hawley, our young star. He is a young star. Thank you, josh. Thank you. Great job, everybody. In addition, the nation owes an immense debt of gratitude to a man whose leadership has been instrumental to our success. It is so important to him. And that is he always mentions , it, number one point. I have always heard actually that when you become president , the single most important thing you can do is federal judges. They Say Supreme Court judges, but we have them too. But federal judges. And you know based on that i , think there is nobody that has done a better job ever than senator Mitch Mcconnell. [applause] you know mitch. Stand up. Come on, stand up. [applause] i always get up and i talk about the economy, the economy, i am always talking. They never write about it, but that is ok. The people get it, but mitch will follow me and talk about judges. It is great when you have done, incredible. The impact is truly amazing. We also have two great Supreme Court judges. That is in addition to the what will be 182 judges. Then we go by what i call normalization after you get to 182. But our Supreme Court judges are great gentlemen. It was so easy to get them confirmed, right . [laughter] pres. Trump one in particular. Nobody has ever had to go through that. I have Great Respect for both of them. So we appreciate it. Mitch, great job. Generations from now americans will know that Mitch Mcconnell helped save the constitutional rule of law in america. It is true. For a long time. I also want to thank pensive baloney and his Phenomenal Team at the white house counsels office, along with our office of legal policy. Where is pat . Where is pat . Stand up pat, come on. [applause] he is the strong, silent type. Strong, he is very strong and silent. Great job you have done. Very great. I had always i always wanted to be the strong, silent type, but it never worked out for me. Never worked out. I want to be, but it doesnt seem to work out that way. But the office of legal policy at the department of justice and the many friends and legal luminaries who have supported all of those nominees and to all of the rest of you in the room, incredible people in this room, great friends. In their wisdom and genius, the framers of the constitution separated government power into three branches. Congress writes the laws. The executive enforces the law. And the Judicial Branch provides an impartial interpretation of the laws it applies to any case before them. This system was designed to protect citizens against the unjust concentration of governmental power. I do say i think we are going through an interesting time right now if you must know. More interesting than at most other times. When judges assume the role of a legislature, the rights of all citizens are threatened. The great english jurist William Blackstone warned that if the judicial power were joined with the legislative, then life, liberty and property would be in the hands of arbitrary judges whose decisions would be then regulated only by their opinion and not by any fundamental principles of law. In other words, the impartial and objective judge who is a faithful servant of the law is essential to the survival of american liberty. So, it is really something. It is really something that you have all done. This is such a big moment in our history. And i think what i am going to do is, as we go along, i am going to ask a couple of you to say a few words. I think it is appropriate. It was not on the schedule, but i think it is very appropriate to have if you speak. Have to promise it will be very quick and short, because the media will not stand for anything else. But i would like to get your views. I think it would be very interesting for all of us. In recent decades our system has been under relentless attack by the leftwing activists who want to take the powers of that elected branches and give that power to unelected federal judges. They want to impose by judicial decree what they failed to win at the ballot box. Does that sound familiar to anyone . That is really familiar. When judges write policy instead of applying the law, they impose sweeping changes on millions of americans without the benefit of legislative debate, public rulemaking, or the consent of the governed. As a result, these highly political rulings inflict painful damage on our security, society, and economy and imposing unworkable edicts on businesses, workers, families, and Law Enforcement alike. They give many, many bad nights to many people, including president s, including president s. But we power through it. We have no choice. I will do everything in my power to halt judicial activism and to ensure the law is upheld equally , fairly and without political prejudice for all of our citizens. So, i would like to, before going any further, i would like to maybe start off i think it would be appropriate if we start off with mitch to just say a couple of words and how he feels about where we are, and what we are doing, and we are going to go through a couple of our friends, if you dont mind. To me, it will be very interesting. Mitch. Mitch mcconnell. Thanks. [applause] sen. Mcconnell well mr. President , i am reminded of election night, when i realized that not only had you won, but we had taken the house, we had held the senate, and this was going to be one of those unusual periods where republicans had all three branches. To show you how unusual that is, you go back 100 years, only about 20 of the last 100 years has our party had all three. We got a chance to set the agenda, an opportunity to move the ball in the right direction. What is the most important thing . Clearly it was the Supreme Court. You had been helped enormously by a decision that i made and these guys backed me up, not to let president obama fill that scalia vacancy on the way out the door. [applause] and boy, you did not blow it. Neil gorsuch is an allstar, isnt he . [applause] and the president alluded to that easy confirmation we had with Brett Kavanaugh. You made a great choice, mr. President. And it is not just that. The Circuit Courts, where 99 of litigation stops, are full of bright young men and women who believe the quaint notion that may be the job of a judge to is to follow the law. So mr. President , this is one of the many ways you are making America Great again. Thank you so much. [applause] pres. Trump thank you very much. Mitch, it is true, when i first came to office because of what i said before that i have always heard how important it is, the choice of judges and the number of judges. In my first day i said to one of our assistants, how many judges do i have to pick . How many are there . I figured none or one, maybe two. They said sir, you have 142. , no, no, no, tell me the truth. I want the truth. [laughter] pres. Trump that was it. And i say thank you, president obama, very much. But it was 142 empty slots, and nobody can believe that. And i couldnt believe it and didnt believe it but now i believe it because we have so many approved, and we are going to hit that magic number. And then it is going to be a lot more from there, because through reasons,tion and other leaving retiring. , i never want to mention the d word, the death word, but that happens too. But we will be picking up a lot. A man that i have a lot of respect for, and everybody does in the senate, chuck grassley. Come up and say a couple of words, chuck. Come up here. [applause] sen. Grassley like i tell my colleagues, if i yell, i am not mad at you. [laughter] sen. Grassley if i let me say what set the stage for this, before any of us had anything to do with this. You ran on a platform that no other president has run on, to tell the type of people that you were going to put on the Supreme Court. And name 20 or 25 people, and that list is still out there, and it is made up of just the kind of people that Mitch Mcconnell has talked about, you have talked about, people that are constitutionalists. And you kept your word. And 20 of the people voted for you based on a proposition of the kind of people you were going to put on the Supreme Court. So, a lot of candidates for any office run on a platform, but they do not stand on that platform. And i think what is important about not only the judges that you have appointed along the lines of what you promised the people you are going to appoint, but also a lot of other issues that you stand for, and the people of this country ought to be complimented that we had a president who said he was going to run a platform, and he stands on that platform. And you have done a particularly good job with the judges. [applause] pres. Trump he is great. Thank you. You know, he has this fierce way about him. He is tough even when he is trying to be nice. Like now he is but i heard that voice i should not say this, but he looked, during one of the big events in the United States senate, he looked at a guy named comey. He said, did you leak . And he was being nice. [laughter] pres. Trump and comey choked, he did not know what to say. He was so frightened of this guy. He choked. I want him to start looking that stuff up by the way, please please look that up. , a lot of choke there. Another man who has been and credible, and he has been a friend of mine for a long time. We actually competed against each other. He was not at all nice during the campaign. [laughter] pres. Trump and who would have thought we would become good friends . Right . Who would have thought . But we did. And i can say the same for ted. We were good friends and then really bad. They said when will it get bad . The media. It is like the academy awards. Look at all the media. Before, when it was successful. It died when they went after us, the academy awards. Now just a regular program. But i said ted and i get along good. In fact he was having a big event near the white house. And he wanted to get more people, so he invited me. He said, can you come . I said you know we are running against each other. This is true. The press said you guys are campaigning together, you are fighting for the nomination . I said thats right, we like each other and we get along great. I think he is great. We both have this incredible relationship. I said but dont worry, it will end, and when it ends, it will be really bad, probably worse than normal. And it was vicious for about four months, but then we had a great relationship again. It was a pretty bad one for a little while, right . [laughter] pres. Trump they did not even think how bad it would get. But it has been great, ted. Lindsey, i would like to have you come up and say a few words. You have been terrific. Thank you very much. [applause] sen graham thank you. Well in theory at 4 00, we are going to vote on two more judges. Move this thing forward. [laughter] sen graham after i got beat like a dog, which he likes hearing, he called me to the white house and said i would like you to help me. I would love to help you be a great president because you are now my president. And he says i dont have your phone number, and i said there is a reason for that. [laughter] sen graham so the highlight of my campaign is when you gave out my phone number. If i had done as well as my phone number, it would have been a different story. To the committee, thank you. The Judiciary Committee is not for the faint of heart. Our democratic friends are tough. They believe in their causes, and we have to fight hard for our causes. But one thing i want to say about president trump, the defining moment of your presidency for me was the kavanaugh hearing. This room would be empty if we had failed Brett Kavanaugh. Brett kavanaugh lived a life we should all be proud of. He worked hard. And the way he was treated was the worst experience i have had in politics. A lot of people would have pulled the plug on him. Mr. President , thank you for not pulling the plug. [applause] and let me say why i support it. Who would have been after brett had he gone down . What conservative young lawyer would want to go through this if we had failed Brett Kavanaugh . So chuck was right. When you run, and you get reelected a year from now, one of the main reasons is that people in the conservative world believe that you fight for judges. God bless you. [applause] pres. Trump thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. Very nice. [applause] we can say that for everybody here. We had, i dont think any of them look, i know you all very well. I dont think anyone had any thoughts of doing anything different, at least in this group. I will say, and that includes mike at that time we did not know bill. He was not involved. Came at a good time, bill. A tough time. But you know what, nobody in this group i will say, and you know this and mitch knows this, there was plenty of other people that were saying, lets go to maybe another choice. They did not say it so nicely. They are people that you know very well, the people that you work with every day. But i can tell you i know every one of you very well. There was nobody that i think even thought about it in this group. Not anybody. And that starts with mitch. Because you never gave me the call and said maybe we can do it an easier way. But i told Brett Kavanaugh i picked him. He was set 10 years ago they were talking about him. I would hear that he would someday be a Supreme Court justice. That was before i was in this wonderful life of politics. I could enjoy my life and think about all sorts of things. And they would say that Brett Kavanaugh is going to be a Supreme Court judge. And anyway, he was on the list. Leonard leo, thank you for being here. We had a list that you worked on very hard and others. [applause] and it did have an impact on the election, if you think about it. Because people knew me very well, but they didnt know. Was he liberal, conservative . Who are the judges i hear so much about . I did come up with an idea to pick 20 and 25 people. Ultimately it was 25. We put great people on, and we have great people on their right now. We have 23 left. Every one of them is terrific. But i went with this list. And at first i said, i will take this list, gave the names, and i will pick people i will pick , people do you remember this, lindsey that are like these people. And i got nowhere. Nobody believed me. They said, what does that mean, like these people . I said no they will be like , these people. And i was being hammered. They said, say it, say it, president , or potential president. I said ok, it will only be these , people. And that is what we have, and that is where it is. And they were just so respected as a group and still are. That is an Incredible Group of people. I can take anyone literally and that had a big impact. But i said to Brett Kavanaugh, i said so brett, you are the , one. You are the one. He was so honored. He said, sir this is the , greatest day of my life. And i said, i just want to congratulate you. Its an amazing thing that i am doing it and that you are receiving it. He said sir thank you very much. ,i said brett let me tell you , something, this approval process that you are going to go through will be so fast and so easy. You are perfect. Perfect life. Perfect family. Perfect education. Top scholar. Best schools. Brett, this is going to be so easy. Little did he know. [laughter] little did he know. But i will tell you what, it really represented something. It represented unfairness, and some of those people that came forward, to my way of thinking, all of those people that came forward, i thought it was disgraceful what happened. And i want to thank all of my republican colleagues for standing up tall for a man who real