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[applause] >> thanks, jade. thank you all for coming. it is great to be here. thank you so much. please have a seat. please have a seat. it is exciting to be here. i thought about because we had a little bit of a meeting before we were talking about some of the issues that affected the country, our constitutional rights and i thought about a discussion, and look, this is a story that goes back to the founding of our country. we had three of our founding fathers, benjamin rush, thomas jefferson, and benjamin franklin had a debate about what was the world's oldest profession. and benjamin rush said, rush was doctor so we said the world's oldest profession was a physician because eve was cutout of adam's rib. thomas jefferson who designed monticello and all of these other things, said, no, the world's oldest perfected --

profession was the architect that brought order out of all of the chaos in the universe. benjamin franklin said that is not right, the world's oldest profession is a politician. who do you think created chaos in the first place? i thought it rang true because so many problems are self-inflicted by and out of -- by an out of touch political class. we can talk about the different issues, and we have through the campaign, we will continue everything from crime, border, education. it is very important. none of the things our political class has done is fail to safeguard our constitution and protect our constitutional liberties. it has happened over a number of years. we are now in a situation where we used to have debates on things like second amendment rights over what might this legislature do or what might congress do to infringe your rights? to infringe your rights? that is still important. but it has gone beyond that to

wear a bureaucracy without anybody ever voting these people in, can decide something like a pistol brace is illegal and they can render with the stroke of a regulation millions of people to be felons. without any debate, without any due process or any of that. that is a government run amok. that is a bureaucracy that is not in tune with the constitutional design. the founding fathers created three branches of government, they did not create a fourth branch of government, administrative state. yet we have the administrative state doing this stuff. it is not just in the realm of second amendment's and so many other things, but the fact they can criminalize something through executive fiat through a bureaucratic edict without having any democratic debate, not having your representatives vote on that, that is a danger

to all constitutional rights. not just second amendment constitutional rights. truth be told, no one had ever really tried to do that until the trump administration did it. they set the ground rule when they tried to do this bump stock thing. it is just a piece of plastic. all of a sudden people will be felons because they have a piece of plastic? they tried to do it through bureaucracy, the courts, and i don't think it is constitutional to simply rule something illegal like that. but that is what biden is following. he's following that playbook. it has been done in two successive administrations. when i'm president, on day one, we will real in this administrative state.

we have come a long way to where we should be as americans. but we need to restore the constitution to the centerpiece of our national life. if we don't do that, a lot of these other battles -- you can win a battle on taxes, on border -- they are important, but ultimately we will not save this country unless we get the constitution back, first and foremost, and these rights respected. it is not just yes the bill of rights are important, but it is also the structure of the government. the founding fathers did not even have a bill of rights. the one who opposed the constitution -- they said it is because you have a legislative branch, they check and balance each other. that is the number one protection of freedom. it is broken down because congress does not do its job. they delegate the bureaucracy. the bureaucracy does things

without -- we need to get this back. if we don't do it in 2024, i don't know that we will have a chance to get it back. i will be a president who will do that. matt can talk about this, but i remember taking those to join the navy and commission. you take those, and they ask you not even to defend the country or the homeland, it is to support and defend the constitution. that is the old that you take. -- oath that you take. so we need to do that. i will be a president who will do that. we will respect and restore the constitution of the united states of america. that will be a legacy far beyond two four-year terms in office. it will last generations. [applause] so i got a friend who is a u.s. congressman from kentucky that i'm going to bring out in a second. he's somebody that is a stickler

for the constitution. he takes votes that sometimes he will be one of only 435 to vote based on constitutional reasons. but that is the type of thing that when you are willing to stand alone for what you think is right is something that is admirable. the time he did this better than any time in his career and one of the most courageous things i have seen any elected official do was when covid hit. when covid hit, you had march of 2020, anthony fauci assuming control of the government, effectively -- basically saying the world was going to end, you cannot leave your house -- basically saying shut down the country and have congress print $2 trillion and pay everybody. i don't know what they thought would happen, but that is what they were going to do. congress, leadership in congress did not even want to have to

vote on printing $2 trillion. they wanted to be able to add $2 trillion to the national debt without even taking a recorded vote. so nobody would have been responsible for this and they would plan on doing it in the dead of night. congressman tom massey said that is not the way constitutional government works. we are not going to have this republic die based on unanimous consent where they are hot lining $2 trillion. he objected what was going on. he took more flak than probably a congressman has taken, certainly in my lifetime, because of the hysteria. certainly we forget just how crazy it was at the time. and he was getting hammered. he stood tall, he forced all of these congressman to come back and do their job and actually put their names to this piece of legislation. the thing is, these congressman were saying it was too dangerous for them to do their job, but

expected the people at the grocery store to get their groceries and people at the fast food place to serve them at a drive-through. they wanted everyone else to do it, they did not want to do their job. but he said at the time if you guys do this, you will pay people not to work on the you will cause problems with the supply chain, create inflation. and every single thing he warned about ended up happening in the u.s. i was proud of him from being willing to stand up. very few were able to. i'm proud he supported in the u.s., and i want you to hear from him now. [applause] >> is it on? >> he is being modest. let me tell you the rest of the story, like paul harvey says. i got in my car and i drove to

washington, dc, i left at midnight from kentucky -- so i got there at 9:00 a.m. everything they were doing, i stopped. one person had to object. they called everybody in from around the country. we are sitting there ready to pass this bill. and i've got to watch the microphone and make a motion. and i get a call from 00000000 -- i'm like who would have a phone number -- that is trump. so i let it go to voicemail. [laughter] 30 seconds later, i get a call from that same number. i'm like doesn't he know i'm busy? i let it go to voicemail. three times it went to voicemail. i thought he will leave a message. a fourth call, someone left a message and said you need to call the president back. they yielded some time. i knew they could not snap the

ball. i walked out and called the white house switchboard back. this voice comes on -- i'm coming at you like you never seen. never in your life before have you seen the way in which i will come at you. i'm more popular than you in kentucky and you know it. i'm going to back your primary opponent and you are going to lose. s then i triedo to explain it is constitutional. you cannot spend $2 trillion with nobody here. mr. president, it is going to pass anyway. he started screaming at me for like three solid minutes. the more i tried to speak, the more he screamed. and he goes "this is the second time you have done this's i was immediately hopeful, because i had done it like eight times and he forgot. on the fake obama care repeal, i did not go along with it. that was fake. they were not going to let you buy affordable insurance. i would not let them do that,

either. he had forgotten about that. he repeated it all. everybody hated me. nancy pelosi went on tv, msnbc, and called me a dangerous nuisance. i think we need more dangerous nuisances to nancy pelosi. [applause] so i go -- trump called me a third-rate grandstander on twitter. i walk off the floor, the world is crushing me, fox news hates me, dredge report hates me. the media said what do you have to say for yourself -- your own president just called you a third-rate grandstander. i said i was very mortified by that and offended. i said i'm at least second rate. so anyway -- when everyone was hating me, i got a call from florida. i think it was daytona beach,

whenever your number comes up. because i got a new phone and i lost his number. i'm like maybe that is ron. i take it, it is ron desantis, and he said you have taken a lot of flak. and i know the polling on this -- there were $1200 checks for everybody. that was the cheese in the trap. that bill was 80% popular with republicans. i was the only one who would oppose it. this is the only guy who called me to offer support. he said it is wrong. we can't shut our governments down, we can't shut our economies down. he said i know the polling is against me in florida, but i'm going to do the right thing. in two years, people will know it was the right thing. and i said i hope this guy runs for president someday. [applause]

by the way. this is a debt badge i wear on my lapel. i will pass it around. my colleagues, when they work with me, they have to see it updating in real time every second of every day. one of the congresswomen, i said my eyes are up here. they can't look away from the debt when i'm wearing it. this guy is the energizer bunny, ron desantis. i cannot keep up with him. i drove 700 miles yesterday to get here because you guys matter. by the time this election gets to kentucky, it will be decided. you will decide what direction it goes. i can barely keep up with this

guy. we have been on planes, trains, and automobiles today. his kids were excited. i brought him -- i brought another debt clock so he can keep track of the mess we are making. [applause] i know it is a town hall and we have to quit speaking, so i will let you guys drive the discussion. it will be the most pro-second amendment president we have had in 100 years, bar none. so please get him elected. >> thank you, we will take some questions. >> i have a question -- a lot of things that were passed, that was a huge aspect of the inflation we are dealing with. as an economist -- a lot of the

things that they were doing -- a huge reason we have inflation, even before biden got in. i also think it was the worst possible -- what can we do, what is the game plan -- there are a lot of people here who cannot make it at all. rick scott from florida said $200 extra a month for people in florida -- 90% of a beneficiary's income -- they are dying and are facing delays. what can we do -- >> the fed did enable this. it is worse than borrowing money, they created $5 trillion out of thin air under trump's budget director. i give him grief for this. i call strikes and balls here.

a lot of this is due to joe biden. have you added up how much was under trump? >> 7.8 trillion dollars in four years. >> that is a record for anyone, democrat or republican. a lot of it was created out of thin air. we cannot undo it. the only way to undo it is to tax money, bring it back in, and burn $5 trillion, take it out of circulation. that would kill the economy. we are stuck. those prices are baked in. to keep them from going up more, we have to cut spending. that is the only monetary thing we can do. >> we worked together on auditing the fed and stuff like that. what the fed has done is taken so much power ove the economy -- when the role of a central bank should be central currency, they started the quantitative easing from the financial crisis.

and they kept on doing it for so long. and when covert hits, they did to trillion with the cares act. and they really created a lot of money and pumped it in. then they said you will not have inflation. when you do this, you don't get inflation immediately. that is exactly what happened. biden came in and poured gas and said he should not have done it. but it was already baked in the cake for 2020. they did another 2.2 trillion dollars in december of 2020 which handed off the money to biden when he came in. he did that to do dei and nonsense they were still living with to this day. it was very predictable. he said it in march of 2020. for the calendar year march of 2020 to march of 2021, it was

like $6.2 trillion spent. that is more than world war ii that we did. what did the country gain by that? we should have never handed the country to file g in the first place. that is where we went wrong by doing that. but i do think -- spending, all of that stuff -- i think he's willing to cut spending, there are other republicans who are. they are not enough to worry, so we need presidential leadership to force them. we are set up for failure in the sense that even if we do get a new budget, new people who are elected a lot of times undo it. so you really need term limits for members of congress, balanced budget amendment for the constitution, line item veto for the president. i think those would be good, positive reforms. the other thing you can do to reduce inflation is reverse the green new deal and open up the

energy for production. the oil and the gas. we have more of that than anywhere. it could be good for national security, drive down prices. you see gas prices have gone down. i think a lot of it is because of overall economic weakness. i don't think it is because -- obviously biden is trying to restrict -- but it will go back up unless we open up. i would do that on day one, open that up, federal lands, all of this. that would be good for consumers. it would drive -- drive prices in a better spot because it affects every thing produced in this country. >> another phone call i got from governor desantis, he said fauci -- are going around using the federal government, talking to state health officials and getting them to shut down the government. scaring them into this. he said i have banned them from florida. [laughter] and i was like can you do that? what he meant is you can't ban

them from going to the beaches, but from talking to state employees. >> the thing was they were doing all kinds of nonsense -- the kids in school, that was bad. florida -- especially like the summer of 2020 when we had our first covid wave -- at that time, people thought when it went up, you had to shut down so it would stop. i knew these things had a natural cycle because i like that other parts of the world. i'm like we are not doing that. i was probably getting hammered more at that point than i had ever been in elected office. we ended up right. ouchi said close, and two days later it was clear florida had peaked. to close after it had already peaked would have been suicidal. he was wrong about that. but what really -- me off was they were trying to get universities to police the students and not let them interact. these kids were at such low risk

from this, so i put the edict out to our universities saying do not restrict their social lives. let them be college students. what was happening and like the northeast, they were isolating these college kids. it was leading to depression, anxiety, and suicides went up, drug abuse. it was at ridiculous tunnel vision. kids got to go, if you are driving in tallahassee, florida state campus, you would see them at the bars or at house parties or whatever. did a lot of them get covid? yes. they got over it, it left the campus basically. so the way that they came down on young people was really catastrophic. k-12 school closures, like in california. you know we did it right in florida. when i'm debating gavin newsom a

couple of weeks ago, he was trying to say california was open and florida was not. they had kids locked out of school for a year. i had families moving from california to florida so their kids could play sports their senior year. the damage they did to k-12 students and college students with these edicts was unbelievable. a lot of republicans are not that popular on college campuses. i can tell you those students appreciated me for saving their college experience. they got to live like normal human beings. [applause] >> the governor mentioned a piece of legislation, the green new deal. most of the bills we pass are like 6000 pages. when i discovered the green new deal was 14 pages, i decided to read it. it took five minutes to read the green new deal. i realized why it was 14 pages. there are only 64 crayons in the

big box. >> i have a question. i will try to organize it. right now. i'm reading and seeing the world economic forum and who are wanting to vote in may to strip us of our sovereignty for health care, which i believe would lead to other things, and have worldwide immunizations and things like that. what is your view on the world economic forum -- >> the world health organization, they want to -- they call it a pandemic treaty. it is really a lockdown treaty. they want to be able to impose that across the world.

when this first came up last year, we had -- i had the florida legislature pass a law. in florida, we don't recognize the w.h.o. lockdown treaty at all. it is null and void in florida. when january 20, 2025, when i take office, that will be an easy decision for me to take the lockdown treaty, rip it up, and throw it in the trashcan. it will be dead in the u.s. once i become president. that goes for all of this stuff coming out of places like the world economic forum. we have done things in florida like kneecap esg, banned the imposition of a central-bank digital currency which is what they want to do. it will affect second amendment rights really, because what they want to do with central-bank digital currency is eliminate crypto, eliminate cash, and force off the national transactions to go through this

digital dollar that is controlled basically by the federal reserve. you will lose financial privacy on that. they will impose restrictions on what you can purchase. for example, ammunition. they may not like that you purchased it. they may stop you. gasoline, you may do more than they want. they will impose basically a social credit score system, ways to force your behavior. when i started raising the alarm about this, it was interesting. the people at the world economic forum have admitted this is what they want to do. i started talking about -- i will use the analogy sometimes government will do things and they are trying to be benevolent on the surface, but it is really a wolf in sheep's clothing. that happens a lot. this is a wolf coming as a wolf. if you don't recognize the threat to your freedom based on having something like this, you

have not been alive the last three or four years with what the elites have done. remember the truckers in canada starting shutting down transactions. the government had no right to do that. i started raising the alarm. it was like every media outlet, new york times, washington post, desantis is peddling conspiracy theories about the central bank. they were all doing this. i was like why would they all -- this is something they want to do. they realized it would be a massive amount of power, transfer of power from we the people to the people that are elites in government. on day one as president, we will also nick's this idea of a central-bank digital currency. that is not going to happen in this country. >> i'm ending -- you mentioned amending the term limits and

balanced-budget. maybe also recommending it for flatbacks. but the president cannot do that. congress probably will not do that. >> article five, absolutely. there are two ways to amend the constitution. two thirds of congress, and three quarters of the states ratified, and three quarters ratified. when you're talking about taking power away from d.c., congress is not going to do that. we've already certified this. a number of states have certified. i will work, we will rally, particularly the republicans, they should not be a problem -- it is not a partisan thing. these are important reforms. we thought about how we would do it, we would put capital behind it and put effort behind it.

i could go in and do the best job in eight years, he can do the best job in congress, but it is like a long-term trajectory of this country. the incentives in washington, d.c. are not conducive to this country doing well in the long term. some people will do the right thing when it is not easy, like we have done in florida. but you have to think most people elected in washington are going to follow the incentives placed before them. they will not buck that for a higher calling. that is not what happens. we have to change the structure and incentives to produce better outcomes over the long term. i will put capital behind it. [applause] >> you mentioned the administration, how do you task the administrative state. when you think about it, that

has been one of the challenges that we've got this bureaucracy. so no matter what the president does, or even laws get passed, now you have an administrative state that basically says this is how we interpret it, this is how you need to execute. >> one, i want congress to assum e more responsibility. i want less power from the executive branch. so they have a piece of legislation called the reins act is any major regulation will not go into effect unless it is approved by both houses of congress. this serves two functions. one, if the bureaucracy is running amok, elected representatives can stop that. the other one is if there is something that is not good and representatives vote for it, you can hold them accountable and vote them out of office. i welcome it, even though it will mean less power for me. on all of these agencies, you

put people in. for example, biden did -- he wants to force the electric vehicles. he's doing that through the bureaucracy. i will reverse it through the bureaucracy. we will definitely do that. we will reign in 100%. i think the challenge is doing things in ways that will stick beyond your term in office. i think you need t termswo -- two terms to make it stick. 50,000 bureaucrats are involved in policymaking. we are taking them out of civil service and into a separate schedule so they can be terminated at will at that point. [applause] we are going to take agencies and parcel them out of the country. they should not be accumulating power in d.c. you have all of these bureaucratic classes in d.c., and they function as a separate class of society, separate and

distinct from the american people. i look at something like the fbi and what happened to that agency. if the fbi had been headquartered in biloxi, mississippi, i do not think you would have seen the culture develop the way it has been. because it has been mashed in the d.c. politics and virginia, the personnel they've gotten, it creates a problem over many years. that is something else we are going to do. we also have other levels we are going to pull where you have a president asserting article two power to the fullest extent to basing the corral power that has gotten outside of what the constitution envisioned. i'm going to get sued on, everything we do we get sued on. that happens in florida. they try and find a liberal judge. a lot of times we win on appeal.

but the u.s. supreme court, i think they will back us on this. you can vote somebody in as president, and the bureaucrats just laugh at that. they just do what they want, anyways. it is not constitutional government. it will end when we are president. >> i think this is the first presidential candidate who has ever come out in favor of legislation that would limit his power as president. that is remarkable. [applause] but on the way over here, he was talking about stuff he did in florida. i said did you do it by executive order or pass it to the legislature? the answer was always through the legislature. that is the hard way of doing it. but it sticks. everything you have done through the legislature will be in place after you are gone. he mentioned the reins act.

we debated that and had a hearing on that in my subcommittee, the judiciary subcommittee. jim jordan wanted me to chair the subcommittee on antitrust. i'm like that is kind of a complicated law. isn't that the government punishing winners and losers are picking the winners and losers? he said i will rename it to the committee, the subcommittee on administrative law, regulatory reform and antitrust. i said administrative law? that is like 90% of the government, you will give me jurisdiction over that? so i took it. he's like you can have hearings on raw milk or whatever you want. i have been doing that. on the forming process, control 85% of the u.s. market. i have to be able to fix that. not by going in and busting them up and have the government sit with guards.

but by giving small processors and consumers the power to get the usda out of their lives. [applause] >> another thing we will do that is kind of like because the administrative state has been unaccountable, the department of education has swat teams and all of that. we will eliminate that nonsense. they should not be militarized, they are politically weaponized, that is unacceptable. you will see these irs agents, department of education, that is a nonstarter. they should not be wielding that power. [applause] >> governor, i wanted to tell you as soon as i heard congressman matthew was endorsing you, it guaranteed my vote. to ron paul and rand paul caucus-goers, a lot of liberty lovers in new hampshire, what is your message to those voters

that if you wanted them to know one thing about you before they voted? >> i will let thomas answer that. we are talking about second amendment rights. very important. when was the time when our rights were most in jeopardy? it was during covid. who was willing to stand up? i was one of the ones willing to stand up, take the heat, to make sure my people were able to go to work, school, and make their own decisions. we banned vaccine passports in the state of florida. we banned covid vaccine mandates on employment. and we made sure it was not being weaponized against people. in terms of liberty, that was the number one threat to liberty we have faced. certainly in my lifetime. very few were able to stand up.

not only did we stand up, we beat found she on these things. so my gateway into understanding the constitution was the second met their second amendment. if you did not have constitutional carry, i would not have come here today. so thank you for getting that passed in the legislature. my gateway was the second amendment. you ask a politician about the second amendment, and they start with duck hunting, i'm not voting for you. i like duck hunting. that is great, but that is not with the second amendment is about. if you don't understand the second amendment, chances are you don't understand the rest of that document. enron gets it. my litmus test is different. after covid. the day before they started 15

days to slow the spread, i could see this coming down. i tweeted, i said i fear the infringements of our liberties and the next year will be greater than fdr's internment of japanese americans in camps. i did that to kind of upset the democrats and remind them the tierney came from their president. they got mad at that. unfortunately, what i said was true. and there are still republicans, there are still presidential candidates, who don't get this. one presidential candidate was responsible for perpetuating some of this tyranny. i was taking the brunt of that. some candidates, we don't know where they were when covid happened. i think they were trying to sell drugs and more data to the government on people.

then there are people who went along to get along. all of those people constitutionally are disqualified from service. [applause] the governor put his finger on it, the greatest threat to liberty that happened in my adult lifetime was during covid. this is the only guy who was fighting when it could have cost him his position in government. >> not only that, but looking forward, we need a reckoning for what happened in this country. we need to hold these agencies accountable, found she and everything. right now, they would do the same thing over again. and we need to make sure this will never happen in our country ever again. i'm the only one running who will do that. i'm the only one who even talks about doing that. the rest want nothing to do with it, they don't want to upset the apple card or their buddies and

some of these industries. but we have a responsibility. inc. about the 21st century. -- think about the 21st century. three major events, 9/11 and the wars that followed, the financial crisis and great recession, and covid. out of all three, covid has the widest impact across the country. some people got covid, people got sick. even people that never got it or never knew they had it were restricted or implicated in many of these places around the country. so we've got to have a reckoning. i will bring the reckoning in the country will be better off for that reckoning. [applause] >> i think i am an anomaly here. navy family in iowa or whatever -- >> iowa has a good navy tradition.

we were just talking about it coming up. and one of the guys is a former baseball player, bob feller was in the navy in world war ii. he could have been traveling and pitching at entertaining troops, but he's like no, i want to go to war. >> i am actually a florida resident. i voted for you. >> iowa by january 15, is it legal? >> voting in the florida primary definitely. we have been here about three years. i know personally the growing trend of insurance being canceled in florida, california, louisiana, all of these places. that worries me. what can the government do to help us -- get the insurance

industry more healthy so it doesn't happen to us? >> a couple of things. one, because inflation and covid, it has been a problem. two, you have a lot of movement with things like esg and climate change, causing the policies to be more expensive which i don't think is a legitimate way to do it. we have kneecap esg a lot in florida. but i think it is getting into that industry. and for the, we have storms and stuff. we have actually done reforms. we had six companies come in, and another five in the hopper. 11 came in, i think they had been leaving california or whatever. when we saw the problem, we saw things to do. i'm concerned about esg, concerns of climate change in everything. that will make these things expensive if they are pricing in

these things that very well may not happen. that is new from 20 or 30 years ago. >> i heard rumors that probably are not rumors, that biden wants to pass the red flag law. i understand the premise behind it. i understand it can be revenge. my biggest concern is military veterans who have claimed ptsd, which is a very real thing, not red flag law would make them criminals and not able to own guns. what can be done about that? veterans don't deserve that. just because they have ptsd doesn't mean they can't own a gun. they are not going to shoot people. >> i don't think post-traumatic stress should be a disqualifier. here's the thing -- and i think matt mentioned it.

donald trump said his policy on guns was he wanted to take the guns first, go through due process later. that is not constitutional to do that. it is not even necessarily about a second amendment. it implicates that. but governments cannot take your tv without due process. they cannot take your refrigerator. that is the whole idea. you have the right to life, liberty, and property that cannot be deprived and leslie give you due process. that is what you have to have. i don't understand why we would want to say somehow due process does not matter. and i worry about how it would be utilized. because we have a government who has weaponized agencies. if you are in a blue jurisdiction -- why would you want to give the government any

more power over your freedoms? i think they would abuse that. there is no question. i think it goes far beyond veterans. we sit here and talk about legal system, but we've got some serious problems with how the system has been perverted. you look in some of the areas, i don't know you get adequate due process, elected judges. i think it would be a huge risk to a lot of people on the weaponization angle. >> there is something going on a whistleblower told me about. i've tried to introduce legislation to fix it but it is pushing the string uphill until we get someone like governor ron desantis. veterans who say they are 50% disabled and apply for a 90% disability, it involves an interview and dr. asking questions. one question is if you manage your own finances. if you say you do not manage

your own finances, they now decide you are not qualified to own a gun, have one in the house, or ammunition. in the way they impose it is send you a letter, they approve the 90% disability, which for some may mean they are not homeless. they get to make the rent payment. they get an envelope in the mail with two things in it. disability and signing away your rights acknowledging your subject to the brady law. that is how they pressure veterans into giving up their rights to own a gun. the only litmus test is if you answer the question wrong. it might be that your wife controls the 401(k) or the stock that you own, you answer honestly and they take your guns away. they were going to do it at the

social security administration and have already promulgated the rule. but it was in obama's last six months in office, we were able to undo it through the congressional review act when he lost his reelection. we are not able to do it with the v.a. issue. ron has been in congress six years before he was governor. i was there 11 years now. we know where the problems are, we cannot find a president who will do anything about them. but we've got one here. [applause] >> -- to talk to you. i think in 2018 -- otherwise it would look completely different. big countries have -- across the world. china and africa, --

at the u.s., we've got embassies across the country, the white house -- as president, how do you envision the country's power -- certain advantages across the country. seeing what was it is doing, but seems to have the values america seems to have -- what countries are doing across the world. >> clearly when i'm president, our embassies will fly the american flag. this is ridiculous. that is what will do, you can count on that. china, i have done something about it. china is doing this. in florida, i banned china from buying land in our state. i don't want them buying farm

land, land near military bases. and we have every right to do that. we ejected them from our universities. we got rid of the confucius institutes they put into spew propaganda, we've also done things on trade secrets. china has effectively used their power to exercise authority over our own society. they have their own police stations with a police chinese citizens. why you would let that happen, i have no idea. i think there is no authority. we will be good on combating the influence of the ccp throughout this country. yes, the hard power, we have to have more hard power. the economic relationship needs to change where we are not dependent on them. but you also have to deal with what they are doing in the u.s. we will have a strong posture in

terms of being proud of america. i think we stand for really important principles and values. and ultimately what anyone else is selling, you don't see people trying to break through the great wall of china to get into that. you we shouldn't allow them to get in illegally at all but for all the left does to complain about this country, i don't see them moving to russia or china or iran. they are not doing that so we still, despite all of our problems, we get more right because we've a great declaration of independence and a great constitution. let's revive those things and let's turn this country around. that's all we have to do. [applause] >> as president, how will you protect the rights of -- gun rights in the states like

california that seem to want to ignore them? >> that's a great question. obviously, federal government, you are not going to allow infringement particular through the bureaucracy. i don't think you have to worry about them passing legislation to infringe but you have this situation where california, we did this debate and they put on the thing, the shooting differences in california have more than 40 even though they have all these really restrictive and onerous laws that violate people's rights on the governor out there said he wants to get rid of the second amendment. how do you do that? you're not doing harm and you're protecting you from the federal government but the state governments are doing that. i think the type of judges you are appointing on the courts is one thing. we had judges who may be more conservative on a lot of things but have not wanted to really

deal with firearm cases for whatever reason. it's almost like they view it as like a second class citizen in the bill of rights omaha, that they are willing to do anything on first amendment, they are willing to do others but they don't really want to deal with the kind of second amendment so we will have judges that will say the second amendment says what it means and it means what it says and it should be applied based on the original understanding and that should be done in ways that vindicate people's rights when they are threatened. i will be in a good position today that. on the supreme court, you look at how the court is now and people say it's a 6-3 conservative corporate but that's not really true. you have three liberal judges who will always be in lockstep on any high-profile case. you just put them down. then you've got to constitutional conservative, thomas and alito, who get it right almost every time. then the other four really very

eerie you have chief justice roberts -- sometimes there, sometimes there and then you have gorsuch and kavanaugh who have ruled well most of the time would've also not great on some cases. the next president if he serves eight years would likely have to replace thomas and alito. when you are doing that, if you replace them with the justices similar to what trump appointed, that moves the court to the left. they have set the standard. i am in a position understanding these issues, i will be able to -- you will never find someone as good as ct. someone in that mold who understands the original understanding of the constitution and is willing to rule correctly when the media doesn't like it and the left doesn't like it and down the

line. you can count on me to do that. i think maybe -- medial to them .4 over eight years and leave a legacy of a court area if we don't win the election and that dems come in, they will be able to undo the progress on the work probably in the next four years. that will be a liberal majority that will run roughshod. over this country we used to complain about some of these liberal judges like ruth bader ginsburg or whatever. the people that are coming out of these law schools now are much, much more ideological in extreme than what was being produced 50 years ago. that's where the left will look. it will be a massive transfer of power from the american people to likely just five liberal unelected judges. i know 2016, the court was front and center for many conservatives because of the death of justice scalia. we knew there would be an

appointment that needed to be made. that certainly was a big motivator for me. i remember at the time, there was a lot of conservatives that did not want to vote for trump. my argument was, you want hillary to replace scalia or do you want trump to do it? he has a list any said he would pick from it. that cause a lot of conservatives to go out and vote when they maybe weren't as hot on doing it. i think the court in this election will be huge. i think it goes to the right to make sure the federal constitution is enforced and it will have so many more implications on down the line. i will get those appointments right for you. you will not have to worry about me putting some the on then disappoints us like we've seen throughout history. we are out of time and i want to thank everyone for coming. i know many of you have signed up to support us and i thank you for that. [applause] >> if you haven't, i hope you will commit to the caucus before you leave today. i hope everybody is willing to go work your friends, family emma neighbors and coworkers to

bring out more support for us on january 15. you decide who the next president going to be. the media does not get to decide. the pundits don't get to decide. you here in iowa get to decide and with me, you have somebody that is earning it, that is showing up and answering questions and doing what it takes because that is what you deserve, somebody that shows up and listens to you and will take all that great wisdom to washington so we can drain the swamp once and for all. thank you all, god bless. [applause] >> thank you. we appreciate you guys. thank you. there you go. thank you so much, appreciate

it. thank you. right here. all right, good deal. how are you doing, man? you want to do a photo? >> you need three quarters of the state to ratify so if someone did something crazy, you will not have three quarters of the state get rattled by it. you would have three quarters of the state that are not going to budge on things that are fundamental. i have significant confidence in that. the only way you would be able to do anything on things that are popular like term limits and things, you have to get voters from blue states. thank you.

do you want to do one? count down let it count. is he in japan? tell him thanks for his service. you know these are obsolete now, right? is that a constitutional carry? got it? all right. how are you.

thank you, appreciate you guys, thank you so much. thank you, thank you. thank you. right here? >> don't forget we are coming for a photo. >> thank you so much. are you taking it? you want to say hi, good.

axiom, this is just over 20 minutes. >> i'm eugene scott, and i'm coming to you today from washington dc. i'll come to our audiences on facebook, youtube, x,, linkedin, and axios.com. join us on x, we will speak with newsmakers some capitol hill looking at what is driving the news and policy priorities that are top of mind heading into 2024. our first guest is the congressman from new jersey's dark congressional district, andy kim. rep. kim: thanks for having me today. >> what have you been working on as you are looking to tie up loose ends in washington? rep. kim: will be able to