Hello again. Welcome to the town hall portion of our afternoon and weekend. Were excited to be able to be joined by a handful of folks who are truly making a difference right here in this very building on the values that animate all of us, faith and Freedom Coalition and all of our members. Thank you so much. As folks are kind of working their way through security out there, were going to go ahead and get started. Obviously things are still moving fast and furious here in the building as theyre kind of wrapping up business for the legislative break that theyre about to take. You know, this is a really neat opportunity because our first visitor for this afternoon has quite a reputation and a resume, if you will, on these issues in the u. S. House of representatives. Senator Marsha Blackburn has immediately become a stalwart in the senate on all of these issues. In this legislative session she was given an important position on the Senate Judiciary committee, which we were thrilled with to see all the legislative work. Shes also going to be one of the significant voices when the time comes not only for Circuit Court judges, any Higher Court Judges that may come about. As were working through i think this is going to be a real highlight for the weekend. Welcome to the stage senator Marsha Blackburn from tennessee. [ applause ] well, greetings. How wonderful to see you all here instead of off campus, as we say, which is where you usually are when we have joined you. I want to, first of all, say thank you to you for your interest and for your willingness to pay your own way here and attend a conference that is really going to shore you up and give you the information you need to talk to your friends and neighbors. I was just talking to a reporter outside the room and he said, why is a conference like this important . I said, let me tell you why. Fewer and fewer people believe what they hear on the evening news. They listen to it with skepticism and doubt. You know who they do believe . They believe their neighbors and friends. I bet if i ask for a show of hands how many of you every day get an email, hear from a friend, go to church and somebody says, look at this that i read on the internet. Is this true . What do you know about this . The most important name in news now is not abc, which i still call them the all about clinton network, or cbs or nbc or cnn. It is the y. O. U. It is you and your circle of friends. That is who youre listening to. That is who they are listening to. Theyre listening to you. So i applaud you for being here. I thank you so much for your heart felt interest and i encourage you in getting the education that you need to help individuals knows what a constitutional truthful vote, what is a constitutional truthful position, and having them understand that indeed elections have consequences and who is in charge matters and who youre listening to makes a difference. If you want to know something about israel, i know who to call. These are people that you rely on because they are your friends. Thank you for that. Now, what i thought i would do today a little bit different than what ive talked to you about in past years, coming to the senate, and youre going to get to hear from some of the senior senators who have been plowing away on issues in the senate. I thought i would recap the top ten most important items that i have worked on since coming to the senate. Then im going to yield the floor to some of these other guys. Its always good to hear from a good, solid conservative woman first, right . [ applause ] i tell my family all the time, im the chief mama in charge. The title x Abortion Provider act. When i chaired the select investigate panel looking into what was happening with planned parenthood, you know, the videos and we figured out they were selling baby body parts. What we did was to put in place legislation that backs up what the president has done by executive order. It simply says this, title x funding will go to its stated statutory services. If you provide Abortion Services youre not going to get that. The title x prohibition and the protecting life and taxpayers act, these two pieces of legislation two of the first thing i did in coming to the senate because stating that we are indeed here to protect life and liberty, oh yeah, what was that the first thing, life. So those are our first two things that we have worked on. Third, last month i filed the campus free speech resolution of 2019. This is you are so welcome. Ive talked to a lot of college students. Its inconceivable to us in this day and age that having diversity of thought would be considered to be harmful or that students and professors are arguing about encouraging people to hear different points of view. So we have this and it backs up many of our conservative groups. The fourth thing in Judiciary Committee we are doing hearings and addressing social media bias and i am going to chair a working group in the Senate Judiciary committee that will look at the issues of privacy, data security, antitrust and online censorship. We think this [ applause ] its important that we hold these Online Platforms accountable and that they move away from subjectively manipulating those algorithms that boot out conservative speech. Number five, judicial confirmations, how do you like these new federal judges . Isnt that great . [ applause ] so far we have confirmed 123 federal judges. And in Judiciary Committee today we moved four more out to go to the floor. So President Trump has set quite a record on this and we really, we really do support what hes doing. Number six, defending israel. [ applause ] Senate Bill One passed earlier this year. And item number seven on my list, fighting bds. Senate resolution 120. Number eight, defending christians in sri lanka, important that we weighed in on that. Number nine is something were continuing to work on even today, keeping maximum pressure on iran and making certain that we support the president when he put these sanctions in place. Irans economy is beginning to crumble. Dont let anybody tell you this is a new problem. This has been going on since the 70s. We know that iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism. I thought it was interesting, the Washington Post even reported that hezbollah was complaining that iran had cut off some of their money flow. So hezbollah couldnt carry out their bad deeds. So were going to keep the pressure on. And number ten is one that we have just done today, the National Defense authorization act, making certain that our men and women in uniform have what they need to carry out the job that theyre supposed to do. Thank you all so much for letting me be with you. [ applause ] hello everyone. Im director of legislative affairs for the faith and Freedom Coalition. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce your next speaker. U. S. Senator make lee was first elected to the senate in 2010. Since then, he has been, as he was before coming to the senate, hes been a leader on all of the issues that we care about. He was an accomplished attorney in private practice, a Supreme Court litigator before he came here so its no surprise that he landed on the Senate Judiciary committee where you have probably seen him in some made for tv specials like the gorsuch hearings and the kavanaugh hearings, which were all great sport. He has been a leader on a number of issues here. Hes a leader on prolife issues, religious liberty issues here in the senate. We have been particularly excited to work with him on a lot of criminal justice issues which President Trump spoke about yesterday and Matthew Charles also spoke to you a little bit about the First Step Act and what that has accomplished. None of that would have been possible without senator lees leadership on the committee. Both his commitment to the issue and fixing where there are disproportionalities in the system. His commitment has been steadfast. He made sure it was a bipartisan bill, that it was able to come out of the Judiciary Committee, head to the senate floor and ultimately to President Trumps desk. Please join me in welcoming senator mike lee. [ applause ] thank you. I never ever get people standing for me when i enter a room in this town. This is unusual for me. When that happens i look around and think they must be applauding for someone else. Its so great to be back with you. I love this organization. I love each of you. I love what you do. I love even the name of the organization, the faith and Freedom Coalition. These are two concepts that define america and theyre two things that cannot exist one without the other. You cant truly be free without faith and you cannot truly exercise faith without freedom. [ applause ] so in that respect your organization does exactly what we as americans do so well, balancing faith with freedom, making sure they both exist so that either can exist. And when either can exist, so can the other. These are things that are easy to take for granted and sometimes people do take them for granted. We have to remember that for most of Human History prior to americas founding, a free conscious was not seen as a fundamental unmitigated good. It was seen rather as a threat. From ancient tribes to modern empires, governments saw fit to subject the city of god to the city of man. The state decided in most instances what consisted of acceptable religion and it punished whatever was not. The centers were punished and so were worshippers of just about every stripe. Fortunately our founders saw a better way. Our founders envisioned an america, the kind of america that we would later become, the kind of america that we still are and that i hope we always will be. As americans were great not because of who we are, but because of what we do. You see, both faith and freedom are the consequence of a choice. We must choose every day of our lives to be free and we must choose every day of our lives to have faith. [ applause ] so our Founding Fathers set up a system that would protect both. It was one of the things we did that was so bold and so brave nearly 2 1 2 centuries ago. Ive talked for a long time and written extensively about o constitution. Theres another document thats not appreciated as much as it should be, the declaration of independence. [ applause ] its sometimes been said that the constitution provides the frame for our freedom, the frame as in around a picture, the structure, but the picture itself is painted by the declaration of independence. Its one of the reasons i wrote a book called our lost declaration. All 12 people who read it actually loved it. What they did when they signed their name to that document was, in fact, treason. It was an act of open resistance against not only their own king, their own country but what was then the worlds last standing and greatest super power. They truly pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. We have to ask ourselves from time to time why did they do it. Was it worth it. They did it, of course, because of their love of their fell hoe being fellow beings. They recognized the eternal worth and immortal, immeasurable import of every human soul, that having been created in the image of god we are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity and we must treat each other that way every day. [ applause ] our religious, our belief in the god of abraham, jacob and isaac was the source of our strength. As he toured america and tried to explain why it is that the revolution had stuck here, why it is it worked here, why it was that we were allowed and able to be free and equally treated under our fair, just system of laws laws. He said, freedom regards religion as the companion in all its battles and triumphs as the very krcradle of its infancy. Religion is the safeguard of morality and morality is the safest pledge to freedom. We managed as a country to hold onto these emblems, these remem bre remembrances. Its been said i believe by Winston Churchill that we shape our buildings and then our bill billing buildings shape us. Im often drawn to a couple of pieces of artwork that often go unnoticed. Both were made by italian born immigrants to the United States who were hired on as artists for the declaration of the capitol. One was by enrico calsiki. Liberty and the eagle consists of a figure i believe representing liberty with her right arm outstretched holding a scroll, most likely representing the constitution. To her right, is an eagle, representing farseeing vision and strength. To her left is a bundle of sticks representing e pluribus unum. In this instance it is held together by a snake. I was alarmed by this sculpture when i first got here. Someone explained to me, maybe, just maybe this is channelling the words of jesus. From matthew admonishing jesuss followers to be as wise as the serpent but as trusting as the dove. Could it be that the founders of our country understood this great truth, that the republican form of government, any form of government that recognizes freedom and protects and professes the right to believe in all mighty god as the source of our strength. Another one of these sculptures can be found on the senate wing. The artist there constantino bramidi. We have to remember the important choice to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves every single day. [ applause ] so i hope we can choose every day to maintain the strength of our republic, to do so by choosing virtue, by making the choice between right and wrong and choosing to interact with each other in a way that properly reflects all of jesuss teachings, including those to love one another. [ applause ] i bear testimony that god lives, that he is aware of and loves each and every one of us, that jesus is the christ, that he suffered for all humanity so that we might be free and we might return to live with him once again. I bear that testimony in the name of jesus christ, amen. [ applause ] so another day well have senator lee, the constitutional expert, explain why someone like that is legally allowed to Say Something like that in a building like this. So hopefully this is encouraging to you. Its informational. Its current. I mean, literally off of the senate floor. You know, like senator blackburn alluded to earlier, we do it in a hotel, large crowd, big stage and stuff, but i really love having this element because i think that not only does it allow us to be able to come into our capitol but honestly allows elected officials like you just heard to lay it out here in front of everybody. This is who we are, this is what we believe, this is what we stand for and were not checking that at the door, right . So speaking of not checking anything at the door, any oklahomans, Family Friends of oklahomans . That is gods country. This has hard as a native texan for me to say this, but gods country. Its easier for me to say because hes married to a former baylor bear. As you heard earlier when i talked about dr. Paul, i think one of the clarion voices on this issue is our next speaker, background as a minister. He has influenced, truly influenced the lives of an entire generation of oklahomans, really throughout the midwest for that matter. But he worked in Youth Ministry for years and years and after interacting literally with hundreds of thousands over the years of high school and college students, he realized that the time is now and the calling is here to come to washington several years ago as a member of the house of representatives, he moved in and became a staunch and reliable voice on these issues. In the last couple of years hes taken that voice across capitol hill into the senate. Join me in welcoming our friend senator James Langford from oklahoma. [ applause ] have a seat. Let me clarify something on this gods country issue. We have more barbecue restaurants in oklahoma than any other state in america per capita. Lots of other folks say they have great barbecue. Okay fine. Come eat ours and youll know the difference. I joke with folks all the time that as you read through the Old Testament it always talks about the sweet aroma of the sacrifice coming up. I always say even god likes the smell of barbecue. It is one of those things that is always special. My background was in ministry. I was 22 years in ministry and served in Youth Ministry. Depending on your background with your own personal youth mine center to know that a youth pastor is a senator either encourages you or terrifies you probably depending on your own relationship with your youth pastor. I never expected to be in congress. This was not in our life plan. This is what my wife calls lifes greatest interruption. But in 2008 my wife and i separately sensed god telling us to be in congress. We said over and over again, thats not rationale, thats not possible, because i was a voter, i was engaged in the issues, i was passionate about what was happening in our country, but i spent all my time working with stunts. I was the director of the falls creek youth camp. Its the largest Christian Camp in america. We have 5,000 students a week there. It is a unique place to be able to do ministry. If you have an opportunity to work with 51,000 students a summer, you take that and thats my job to be able to do that. But in 2008 and 2009 got was very clear to say i want you to do something different. When we started praying about it, i really thought this was going to be an Isaac Abraham kind of moment. Fw god was going to say be faithful about it. At the ends of that we finally had to get to the point. Were going to i meet people all the time. They say my family doesnt have a background in politics. Theres no way i could ever get involved in that