railroad commissioner ryan sitton. >> so any way one of my dear friends said you must talk to pete sessions. because if you want to understand what's going on in texas and you want to understand the win and you want to understand the fight, he's the man to know and with that, i must say, i started learning about pete and as we all know, the honorable pete sessions is a legend. he's here. he is fought, he's served us fifth district, in the 32nd district, and he served us in the most powerful committee in the entire country, the rules committee. the only reason the united states house of representatives actually got anything done is because of the leadership of one man and one committee and that is our beloved pete sessions. make no mistake about it. and when you want to go and say how do we take back the house, i can tell you one name, that is pete sessions because pete knows how to sell the fight. he knows how to serve and he knows what it means to make sure that we protect the entire country in terms of liberty, opportunity, and he understands the threats on the left but most importantly, he understands us. and with that, i'd like to take a moment and have us all give our be love love beloved a tremendous round of applause. >> thank you. [ applause ]. >> secretary. >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much, our opportunity to hear tonight from our great ryan zinke and administrator pruitt, i think gives us understanding -- david, how are you? -- gives us an understanding of exactly the thoughtful articlation and our public policy and we believe our policy makes life better for americans and that is why we have smart-enabled people who are ready at the call to not only discuss the important attributes of policy, but also to play them out. i want to thank each and every one of you not only for your hard work, your sweat and tears over the years, but also for your firm belief that our greatest days in america lie in front of us and what we need to do, we look forward to and that's in two years. secondly, i. to say thank you to table 17 and 18, my staff is over there. for each one of you, and the people who stood beside me, thank you. thank you very much. [ applause ]. the people who stood beside me, thank you. thank you very much. [ applause ]. i know they're timing me tonight. they're going to time all of us. sorry about that. but tonight i want to take a minute and tell you what ryan zinke said and administrator pruitt said was correct and that is when america has gotten marginally better it is because republicans utilized the policy window believe in and i think back to 2005 when it was the republican party that passed a law and signed by president bush that said all ground and surface water will be controlled by the states as opposed to the federal government. because we understood that takeover by the democratic party was exactly that, over every creek, over every river, over every lake to take over every single part of whatever was water that the federal government would control. that led us directly to the ability just a couple years ago when republicans came up with this darn idea, that we should put our energy into the world market as opposed to not offering our opportunity for the world to buy our energy products. and in wiley, in sache, and rowlett, texas, gas went $4.29 to $1.29. it has opened up a marketplace for all of our people involved in the energy to go and sell their products overseas and today, as secretary zinke said we are the saudi arabia of energy for the world. and it is these things we have stood for. i want to take just a minute and give you some insight. i've returned darwin deson from singapore and china where i spent the last ten days. and the big discussion over there is about how they're going to fall in line with america, not fight america. and as you know, the communist party of china had their great big yearly meeting. unanimous votes. there was no discention. i wouldn't want to descent either. and what happened was they decided that they are going to open themselves up to american ideas of investment opportunities from the world. they didn't say america. they just said the world. but here is why this is happening. this is happening because our president, donald trump, has the guts and the vision actually to take on this tariff issue. you'd say the timing was bad. yes, the timing was bad, but the outcome is going to be on his timeline as an advantage and it is this, that the chinese and the americans are going to stop all tariffs, which means that the winners in this become the chinese people, not the chinese government. the chinese government has been winning and taking money off these tariffs for a long, long time. and sticking it to the chinese consumer. just like you see in france, where the french government makes money off energy. they make money off taxing gasoline and they are sick and tired of it. and what will happen here is you're going to see a huge revolution, i believe in china and it's lard started where the chinese government now is developing their own irs. they're demanding every single person in china above a certain level start processing and turning in what kind of money they have. they've never had to report it. they now have over 340 billionaires so what's going to happen is we are changing their communist system to where you will find their enterprise system that hates their irs, too. and we're going to look up and say comrade, how does that feel. but the bottom line is between is that the money will be taken away from the chinese government and it will -- those chinese consumers will want to be just like american consumers and have the best of all products in the world at the best price. so i think the long-term attribute of what you're going to see from president trump and this outcome will mean our stock market will be raring back and we'll be encouraged to retake the house, the senate, and we will have american republic ideas of free enterprise across the country. and i'm very excited and i want you to know that if we intend to win we're going to have to continue to stick together and last thing i'll say and we know this, we gotta work. there is nothing for the last few years i've been telling people hold on, this isn't what you think it is. we've got problems. we've goat got a lot of problems. if we self enterprise we'll win and i thinks that's what we're going to do. tonight we have a real special guest ryan sitton and he said if jennifer is here, but he said no and there are a bunch of texas aggies that know me well. [ audience "whoop" ] >> he's a businessman, went to texas a&m, started a great big company that really makes sense. he's an engineer. the first engineer in the history of the railroad commission. he has an idea about e fictionency and understands mathematical points that can bring to bear texas and its assets and resources where they'll be utilized proper like and well for the benefit of the people and state of texas. please welcome welcome the railroad commissioner brian sitton. [ applause ]. >> i've got to brag on pete. i do not remind pete what my wife's name was. he just walked up and said is jennifer here. no. and then he says, you're an aggie, right? he just remembered that. it's interesting how those moments stick in your mind when you connect with somebody like pete did with me tonight. thank you for that honor, pete. can you think of a time in your lifewhen something happened that changed the way you thought? that changed your perspective? changed how you think is things should be done? the recent time in history i can remember was november 6th last year. i was at the hotel as the election results were rolling in, the beto-ted cruz race and i had helped ted during during his campaign. they wanted to do a mock debate and they were looking for somebody who was comfortable going after ted. obviously tall and attractive. so i got to debate ted cruz. i played the liberal socialist i mastered the hand motions and visited with people along the border and they want more healthcare. i did the whole thing. election night was going on and we knew it was going to be a closer race than normal. we knew look to give him credit beto worked hard. he had gone all over the stay. charismatic guy. as we're watching the election results come in though i didn't expect it to be as close as it was. i'm sitting there in the hotel, my mind is blown. how can people buy this? this doesn't make any sense. throughout history, we have watched socialism implode every single solitary time it's been tried. from ancient rome, communist greece, every single time it crashes. in fact, look at china where they're trying to unwind it. they're trying to undo it. it never, ever, ever works. in particular when we're hearing about the voter turnout and they're saying, i'm just -- my mind is blown. i take a step back and i realize said this is to the about policy. we've got a brand problem. we've got a brand problem. you see if you grew up in the 1970s and '80s like i did, you remember the cold war. and words like communism, and socialism, struck fear in us, i remember sitting at home and my parents talking about what was going on in russia and gorbechov and reagan, it was a scary time. but if you're a high school kid today, what does socialism mean to you? social is a good thing, right? you should be social. you don't want to antisocial. we've got a brand problem. in order for us to understand this brand problem we have to think what life was life when we grew up. i grew up in dallas county, in irving. my parents are teachers and my dad taught at nimitz high school for 40 years and my mom taught at a little private school for 42 years. they have 82 years of education between the two of them. i have a younger sister and brother. my date tonight is my brother, as for most of the my career. my younger, more attractive brother and zach is a police officer, serving in the highland park police department. [ applause ]. and zack and aaron and i growing up, parents both teachers, we didn't extravogency. we're going to go to furr's tonight. my mom stayed home with us so for about ten years we lived off my dad's paycheck. my dad taught at high school, and north lake in the evenings and summertime and worked at a racetrack my uncle owned. he worked three jobs and we supported a family of five on probably $25,000 a year. and we knew no different. growing up because my parents were teachers, i was a fantastic student, which is total lie. i -- you remember that kid that was awful in school? the kid that -- that like always disrupted class, the kid that could never pay attention? the teachers would take that kid, if they didn't have to have me in their class, i was the worst kid in school and my parents put up with it, got all the way through school and i real didn't know envy until i got to high school because i got to go where my mom taught and a lot of kids that came from highland park area or north dallas area going to school there and low and behold, 15, 16 years old, all the other kids, new mustangs and nissan path finders are showing up. i worked the summer, saved up $900, and bought a camaro. i didn't apply anywhere exception texas a&m and that other school luckily i selected the finest academic establishment and got my mechanical engineering degrees. got out of school and went on and got my first job working the oil business. and around the time i was 30 years old, in fact, it was about 12 years ago, the company i was working for was bought by seman's, the big national company, and like that i was out of a job and at this point my wife quit work, as well. do you know how you've heard double incomes, no kids? we were double kids no income, but that's when i had the opportunity in november of 2005, i was basically fired middle of 2006, we start our company, pinnacle. we took $10,000 and put it into a business account, my wife and i. for the rest of 2006, did not take a paycheck. we went the entire year without earning an income but that's how we started pinnacle. we hoped and had positive energy and today pinnacle employs 900 people, does business all over the world. [ applause ]. thank you. i don't tell that you story -- i don't meaning to bragadacoius. i'm talking to my father about the way you grew up, and talked about the risk of starting a business and what that's like. he said ryan, do you know why we didn't have money for you to go to college? no. he said ryan, you weren't a planned pregnancy. it was that day they found out not only did my parents not plan to have me, my parents were both coming out of divorces at the time when they got -- when my mom got pregnant with me and had a plan to have me aborted. four days before she went in my mom decided i can't do this, she calls my dad and jim says okay, let's get married. they are married today, still live down in midlothian, texas and still had two more kids. [ applause ]. he says do you know why you were such a bad student? he goes you were severely add. we had take you to a counselor and the counselor did some tests and said this kid is off the scales, you have to put them on medication, mom and dad said we're not going to do that. i said dad why didn't you tell me this stuff growing up? he says very clearly we did not want you to be defined by your disadvantages. we want you to be defined by the possibilities. man when i was about 30 years old that stuck with me and about 12 years later, 14 years later, november 6, 2006, that is what the republican party stands for. we believe in people more than government. we believe in defining people by their possibilities and their opportunities, not by their disadvantages and their problems. this is what makes the republican party great. why is it kids aren't getting it? why is message not getting through to the next generation? if somebody would have forced -- would have forced that school to accommodate your add-ness, or when you had to buy your own car, what if we taxed the rich and gave you a car or what if we paid for your college education and what if we would have promised that to you? that would have sounded pretty good. but if you said if we could go back in history and do all that for you wouldn't that have made life easier? possibly. would you take it? don't you dare. you see because of those experiences, i believe in me. i believe in people more than i believe in government. ryan then, whose job is it to look out for those of us who are in need? whose job is it to look up for those at the biggest risk who don't need what they have for life? whose job is it? it's my job. i've been tremendously blessed and it is the most blessed whose responsibility it is to look out or to help or support those who are most in need, no question, un erks unequivocally. it's my job as an individual. it's not the job of government. we believe in people more than we believe in government. ryan, you only talk this way because you've been successful, some will say. possibly. or maybe i'm successful because i think this way. that is the message that makes the republican party strong. as we go out and we share our vision in 2020 for what we stand for, we talk about things like liberty. when we talk about freedom, when we talk about limited government, those things are crucial. but if you're an 18-year-old or 22-year-old, i submit to you that you don't know what that means. but when you talk about student, when you talk about where you're going, when you talk about what we do to protect opportunity, now that's something we can get excited about. in fact, let's talk about some big things today we don't talk enough about, i think. let's talk about some of the bold ideas that republicans have that represent the future of our country and our state. for example, let's talk about the national debt. right now, the federal government is in 22, $23 trillion worth of national debt when you add in unfunded social security and medicare, it's $200,000 worth of debt on every man, woman, and child in the united states. i'm talking to an 18-year-old, do you want to be saddled with $200,000 worth of debt that paid for something you had no benefit from? no republicans would like to balance the budget. and we'd like to get out of national debt. what about education? we believe and as republicans we need more choices for kids. we believe if it's going to trade school or selecting a private institution, that's what republicans support, that's opportunity. that's possibility. we need to get away from this verbig, every kid should go to college. when every kid graduates from junior college or trade school makes more than the average kid who graduates from a four year university if you take our business and engineering. we've got to begin to send a message of possibilities and opportunities that we protect. and energy as your railroad commissioner. you heard ryan zinke talk about we need to do the minimum so it's safe we keep energy as affordable and reliable as possible. when gasoline prices and electricity prices are low, who benefits most? it is the poorest people in our society that benefit from those low costs. that's what we believe in. that's what republicans stand for. in 2020, our mission should not simply be about us and them. it should be about carrying this bold vision we believe in people more than we believe in government. what would i do about it? in 2020, the president will be the top of the ticket. john cornyn will be the next statewide elected official down. your railroad commissioner will be the third statewide elected official on the ballot. i'll be leading the state ticket, and i'm not being passful about the fact that my mission is to go out and do better in 2020 than we did in 2018 by making sure every single person we can connect with hears this message. and we believe in people more than we believe in government. i'll be working with your state representatives, your judges, your county commissioners, your county chairwoman to make sure we are sending this message, especially in areas where we lost to congressman or a state represent a few months ago. i believe that when we connect with people on that message, that's when we attract people to our cause. here's what i'll ask a couple things, you're here already, thank you being here and supports the dallas county republican party. what's the role in our state mission this year? it is when we need a ground game, when i come to dallas to block walk with pete sessions or angie chin button, when i come to go out and connect with others in the area, we need a ground game, it's the dallas county party who will help us with that ground game, organize the volunteers. your resources going in and support to do that so we can be effective in the local apparatus. here's a second thing. please help me repeat this message: when people talk to you, especially young people, about what the republican party believes in, we believe in leadership, we believe in service and leadership and perseverance. we believe in opportunity and accountability which comes out of the possibilities. we believe in protecting opportunity for every single texan, especially those who are most in need but we do not believe in doing it by taking something from somebody to give it to somebody else. what we believe in is keeping what we do as small as possible and letting individuals take care of the rest because we believe in people more than we believe in government. thank you very much for having me this evening. it's a pleasure to serve you as your railroad commissioner. god bless you. [ applause ]. >> ladies and gentlemen let's give a tremendous round of applause again. thank you so much commissioner ryan sitton. we could not be more proud of you on that ticket. we will be there for you in 2020 as you are here for us tonight. and speaking about who is here for us tonight, it's my great honor to introduce please have a seat this is so exciting. many of you know, our finance chair, doug deson in addition to being an incredibly committed man and now happily married man, jackie deason congratulations. we're so happy for you guys. when doug puts his mind to something, it happens. you'll be sitting in an office and says you're running for county chair and i laugh and you're thrilled to be doing it and thrilled to serve. jackie, i don't know what the conversation was to you, but clearly you know i'm talking about something that's quite effective. for everyone else, working with doug is an absolute honor. when you work together, things happen. think about it. people have been working for 20 years to get criminal justice reform through and when does it happen? when doug deason is there and i must say it's not any mistake doug does because darwin, you created a wonderful man and you made the difference so many of us acknowledge and you are properly honored by the texas public policy foundation for the sam houston award last year and we thank you from the bottom off our hearts just like ryan is talking about where we believe in people and your story of coming here, creating what you have from arkansas, bringing it to texas and changing the world and making entrepreneurs like me flourish in an environment where the whole world is connecting because of you and you take that gift and you actually give it back to us. thank you. and you've given us doug and we thank you, darwin. with that, without any further adieu, it is my honor and privilege to introduce to you our finance chair and friend, doug deason. doug? [ applause ]. >> thank you very much. it's an honor to be here. it's great to see such a good crowd. you've now witnessed two of the most add, high-energy people in this state and that's missy and ryan sitton. if governor perry were here we'd have the trifecta. am i right, david? unfortunately, governor perry is not here, but he would be. i have the great honor of introducing our friend, charlie kirk, and charlie just flew in. i've been watching my phone, listening toy everything everyone said and watching my phone as we track his course across the united states. he landed, had a guy pick him up. he's been with the today. i let him tell the story. he was with thepresident, the announcement of an executive order to require free speech on college campuses. [applause] a lot of people take credit for that but the guy that deserves the credit is charlie kirk. charlie is ceo, founder and ceo, of turning point usa. we are big supporters. he is and inspiration for me, he travels the world and you never know when you will get a text from him, i don't know when he sleeps. he is one high-energy person. we are really proud that he is here and i think you guys will enjoy him. charlie kirk. [applause] thank you. thank you all for having me. it has been a long week. i technically started my day in phoenix, arizona. i took a redeye flight to washington, d.c.. last night i was talking to 1400 college students at arizona state university at one of our events. it is amazing how many students are interested and curious of the conservative message when they are given a platform to hear the other side. it is not that students are opposed to our ideas, it is that they are not exposed to them in the first place. we saw that last night at arizona state university, were 1400 students showed up. i finished it up and took a redeye flight to washington, d.c., where i spent the day in the white house, getting prepared for -- something that was years in the making and something that the family played an instrumental role in. today, president trump signed an executive order that requires any institution of higher education that receives taxpayer funding to protect the first amendment rights of all students and failure to do so will mean they will not get any federal funding anymore. [applause] a massive accomplishment. let's give it up for the president for that kind of courage, right?[applause] let me walk you how we got through here today. we have a president for the first time in 40 years where college campuses have gone far to the left which all of us in this room i know are concerned about and have probably experienced in one way or another. i'm sure if i asked around a couple people in this room will have seen a kid or grandkid, the come back from university someone completely different. this president did something so courageous. how did we get there? we played a part at turning point usa. the nation's largest student conservative organization. i found this organization when i was 18. i did this instead of going to college. i had no money and no experience and no idea what i was doing. i was off to a perfect start. i had one word which was hustle. i hustled my opponents. i had no idea what i was doing but i outworked everybody and that is what makes this country so amazing, that you can outwork your competition, you can have a vision, and achieve it. started when i was 18 years old, met some amazing people along the way, and in the summer of 2016 i met doug deason. he was nice enough to take me along to a fundraiser for the donald trump campaign, then candidate trump. that moment changed everything for turning point usa, for myself, and some would say for the country. at that reception in fort worth i met a group of dallas young guns that said have you met donald trump, jr. yet? i said he seems like a great guy. they took me and i met him, we hit it off immediately and we spent the entire remainder of the presidential campaign campaigning with him and we defied all the odds and obviously we got the greatest political upset arguably in american history. [cheers and applause. and through that became huge supporters of ours in many different ways and i would never have had that relationship at all if it wasn't for doug and darwin connecting me to the trump family. right after the election in the victory, he said tell me more about this turning point usa organization. at the time we had a $2 million operating budget, 10 people on staff, 25 people total, we were on about 300 campuses across the country. i explained that we believe that college campuses are fundamental to winning the culture war in the country, that politics are important but if we lose campuses we lose the country. and he said that makes a lot of sense, how can i help? i said i want to grow turning point usa to be the battle tank, not a think tank, but a battle tank for the values of american exceptionalism and free enterprise. what started to form was this group of unbelievable patriots and don and doug being part of that team. and grew it from a respectable size to honestly a powerhouse. we are on 1400 high school and college campuses, 100 people on our staff in all 50 states, of $15 million operating budget. a pretty amazing success story for a kid from chicago with no money, no connections, no idea what i was doing. only in america is that kind of story possible. [applause] you have probably seen our communications director, candace owens, one or 200 times. you have probably seen our amazing other voices. what happened a month ago today was nothing short of the straw that broke the camel's back. we had one of our chapters at the university of california berkeley, mind you, candace owens and myself, we are the only conservative duo in the history of the country to speak at uc berkeley, stanford, and ucla and live to tell about it. our visit last spring at uc berkeley inspired a core group of conservatives to start a turning point usa group at uc berkeley. we understand we are not going to be the majority. we understand that we are not going to win over 90% of students, but that doesn't mean you should not advocate for your beliefs and do everything you can to recruit other students. about a month ago, our students were tabling with socialism sucks t-shirts, with signs that said fake hate crimes hurt real victims, things that should not be that controversial. in what happened honestly changed the face of our entire education. it wasn't intentional but it just so happened that hayden williams, who was tabling for our organization, got in a confrontation with a thug. said how dare you come online campus, and you probably seen the video one or 2 million times on cable tv, punched him in the face, gave him a concussion and a black eye. i put that video on twitter and it totally girls viral. and they refused to press charges. most beautiful irony i could imagine -- the fact that they didn't pursue charges made this a news story for two weeks which gave us more time to talk about this injustice and more time to talk about how crazy college campuses have become. so thank you, berkeley pd, for the anarchy that you usually allowed to run amok to backfire. for weeks this went on and it really struck a chord with the president, and it seemed at cpac -- a great gathering -- we had four mainstage speakers, including myself, the president got up and surprised us all and committed to doing something that i've been pushing for for my very long career, which is to withhold federal funding from any institution that dare not protect the first amendment rights of its students. why should we be sending our taxpayer dollars to these islands of totalitarianism? and the president committed to doing it. and today was that moment, where he did what he said he was going to do, and for those of you that follow my writing or my tweeting which i tend to do a lot of, i get asked a lot -- what do you make of donald trump's moral character? i got this question last night at asu, some student said he's obviously the most immoral president in american history. the first thing, the first way i judge morality of a politician or a leader -- is that leader doing what he said he was doing? did that leader turn his or her back on their constituents? did the leader move the embassy when they said they want, cancel the iran deal when they said they wanted? did they put strong judges on the supreme court on the circuit court, did they deregulate the economy? of course. and every single turn this president has kept his promises, unlike presidents of the last 30 years or leaders that say they will secure the border and don't and will move the embassy and don't -- this president has done everything he said he was going to do at every single turn, despite the media trying to assassinate him, despite the elites in both parties trying to demagogue him, despite every single person in both parties that have been happy with the status quo at our expense and i think theit deserves great praise for everyone in this room that our president has done exactly what he said he's going to do, despite the elites trying to demagogue him and attack him time and time again. i think it's truly extraordinary. and please bring me my other glassestoday is no different. [applause] might work today really liberates college campuses and allows students the opportunity to allow our opinions to be heard in the amazing way, whether it be talking about life in the most moral system or why the constitution is the greatest political document ever written or why this is the most moral framework to run a country under or why the bible is the most spectacular book ever composed -- these ideas can now be expressed without fear of retribution or silence because of a president that has finally decided to hold these universities accountable. you have seen what happens on campuses will soon be in congress. i warned audiences like this that there will soon be a young, probably female, clueless, probably hispanic, socialist that will go to congress, be constantly wrong but never in doubt, and get nonstop media coverage around ideas we all thought were why did i know that? is it because i'm clairvoyant? no. it's because what happens in campus will soon happen in congress. she's a moderate compared to what these most activists believe in. she's considered not to be radical enough if you don't believe me go on the campus of university texas, austin and wear a trump hat and see how long you can go without having the worst names possibly thrown at you or wear a shirt that says america is the greatest country that ever exists. the culture war will determine the future of this beautiful country that we all love is not in the halls of congress. it's just not. it's in the lecture halls across the country and in our college cam pews that will determine the future of this country. that's what turning point u.s.a. has decided to focus on. we don't have an office in d.c. and we never will. because what happens in america, not washington, d.c. because the disconnect between the ruling elites and the actual citizens of this great country has never been more dramatic. and you will see a rising socialist party which honestly the democrats have become. they've become outward socialists versus those who dare become the alternative. that's what our work is doing every single day. and it is involved in that culture war. there's two ways -- this is the question that will happen. this is the only question that matters. are you angry or are you thankful to live in america? that's the only question that matters anymore. that's the only question that matters. if you're angry that you live in america, you are a democrat. if you're thankful if you live in america, you are a republican. it is that simple. [applause] every other question, high taxes, low tax, regulation, it doesn't matter. if you're angry who lives here. do you think ocasio-cortez, harris or sanders are happy that they live here? if you listen to kamala harris we live in a sexist homophobic -- i'm listening. why are you running for president? it's horrible. move somewhere else. we've been given a gift. god gave us a gift to live in this country. and we're so thankful. you saw it when robert francis o'rourke. don't call him that fake name he wants you to call him. i'm more hispanic than he is. and i'm not hays panic all. he's an irishman. call him robert francis o'rourke. you saw him how close the senate race was. it shouldn't have been that close. because they went to the university and colleges, and they sold utopia to a generation that wants to be generous with other people's money. it's very easy to be generous with other people's money, isn't it? it's very easy to vote other people's rights away if it doesn't affect yourself or have skin in the game. this is how 2020 will be defined. you have a president that says be thankful you the female unemployment. be thankful for this. and the other side is, be angry. be angry, we're a horrible bitter country. and those of us who believe in the values, all bad things come after anger an spite and bitterness bittersness. we will win in 2020 and the future. and thanks to the many people in the room and the war that we have in college campuses, we will win the culture war in the history ever to exist. thank you so much. honor to be here. thank you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, let's give a tremendous round of applause to charlie kirk. charlie, to have you here on such a day is such an honor. wow! my husband just created a new vegas bet called, what college will be the first to get its funding pulled. so if any of you guys know a good bookie, set me up. with that being said, it is with tremendous gratitude. our program here tonight was only possible because of you. you made tonight happen. our sponsors, facilitated an absolutely beautiful evening. we give thanks to our major sponsors. darwin and doug, thank you so much for your support to lead folks here as well as james. it's truly amazing. all of our sponsors. and more importantly every single person in this room because tonight as pete told us, pete you were spot on. it's about work. we all came together to unite, to see what we're working for, to see what matters. and now we must go out, share our message because as commissioner sitton said it's about people not government in terms of who you trust. and now are we angry or are we grateful? i say in this evening as we end, we are incredibly grateful for you, for each other, we are grateful for this amazing country that is the best example of human freedom we've ever seen and we are grateful of the freedom of religion and to support it. with that, i say thank you, tonight. and a happy reagan day dinner night. thank you. [applause] >> live from capitol hill to the veterans affairs committee is holding a hearing on suicide prevention among veterans. things should be getting started shortly. you are watching live coverage on c-span3.