be speaking from the white house, his official, i guess we could call it, reaction to his acquittal after the kbeimpeachm trial in the senate. thank you all so much for joining me. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. to our viewers in the united states and around the world, thank you for sharing this busy day with us. any moment now the president of the united states will offer his thoughts on his impeachment trial acquittal. already this morning, a preview, proof the president's emotions are raw and that this is personal. >> we have allies, we have enemies. sometimes the allies are enemies but we just don't know it. >> the setting for that? the annual national prayer breakfast. that's a bipartisan washington event. the headlines say it will focus

on faith and healing, but the president came to punch, not to reflect, lashing out at the democratic speaker of the house, who was seated nearby, and at the one republican senator who voted to convict the presidency as a abobetrayal. >> i don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. nor do i like people who say, i pray for you, when they know that that's not so. >> speaker pelosi just moments ago responding. >> i don't know if the president understands about prayer or people who pray, but we do pray for the united states of america, i pray for him, i pray hard for him because he's so off the track of our constitution, our values, our country. he really needs our prayers. so he can say whatever he wants.

he can say whatever he wants, but i do pray for him and i do so sincerely. he's talking about things that he knows little about, faith and prayer. >> let's get straight to the white house and cnn's kaitlan collins. kaitlan, the scorn from the speaker there and the crowd in that room. house members who support the president, political operatives who support the president. you're at an inside political event but that's an important pep rally. >> yeah, it is, and john, all you have to do is look at how the president spoke at the prayer breakfast this morning, normally an event that's muted, so you could say the president is on steroids here today because he feels like he's been restrained the last several days, he hasn't spoken out publicly, and now it's his time to come out here before his cabinet members, his friends, and essentially try to take a victory lap. the president has portrayed

himself as a victim throughout all this. he has not heeded that message from republicans to say he acted inappropriately and that it was wrong to want to investigate the bidens through ukranian officials, but his headline of him being acquitted by the senate yesterday is now being distracted by mitt romney's vote, of course, to acquit the president on that first article of impeachment, breaking from the republican party and voting to remove the president of his own party from office. the president is irritated from that. we're being told to expect more of that, john. the big question is does the president take questions from reporters at the very end? he's got rows and rows of staffers and friends, reporters in the back. we'll wait to see if he wants to speak more about this and take our questions. >> kaitlan collins at the white house, we will keep in touch. we have nia-malika anderson, cnn

john harwood and maria lopez. the president wants to see this as a vindication, but you can see he now has a vindication of an enemies list. >> when he was coming out and talking about great things happening in america, there was an edge of anger because he had been impeached. here the anger comes from the fact of the impeachment that nancy pelosi did, but also mitt romney's decision. so the president is showing us who he is. he is somebody who thinks not in terms of right or wrong, not in terms of true or false, not in terms of the values faith teaches, he's somebody who thinks, does this help me or hurt me in the moment, and he is both vindicated but also stung by what's happened. >> also stung. as we wait for the president, phil, it was a dysfunctional relationship, anyway. but if you need any proof, it divided the speaker of the house

from the president, the most powerful person of the democratic party. she ripped up his state of the union speech. she was scornful of the president, almost dripping. at one point saying, after ripping up his speech, would you invite him back next year if he wins reelection? nancy pelosi making it clear she hopes that doesn't happen. >> i know you would like another president, but would you invite him back to the state of the union? >> next year we will have another president of the united states. that is an absolute imperative for our country, for our constitution, for the land we love from sea to shining sea which he degrades almost every day. >> we don't know what's going to happen in the election, but just the idea that she's adamant now and dripping in her scorn for him. >> she said something during that press conference that maybe other people missed given the a

as i h cid cidity of her other remarks, she feels liberated now. she feels she gave the president the respect he deserves, that the office deserves, she feels she's given him every opportunity to come across the aisle and work on things they may agree on. she feels like she gave him that opportunity, he didn't do anything with that opportunity, and based on what transpired over the last couple weeks, she's basically over it. what she tried to tell her caucus and what you'll see today, she's in a different place. she still respects the office, but the man, especially, she's in a different place with. you'll see more in her tenor and tone than what she's said in the last couple years that she's praying for the president, she wants the country to succeed, she wants the president to succeed and now she's in a different place. >> she says there will be a new

president next year. if you look at the recent metrics, the president's polling points have gone up. the president is in the strongest position he's been in perhaps in his entire presidency, but certainly in months. if you're looking at a map today, it is plausible, viable, you can get a trump reelection strategy. the republicans are divided with the nomination and he has the office, as good as any weapon. >> and the iowa caucus didn't go as well as they had hoped, and that's still something being discussed. we don't even have the full 100% results yet from iowa as democrats head into new hampshire. but back to what phil said about pelosi, i think impeachment was

the ruby cicon for her, it was crossing of it. and now she feels there is no reason for her to try to keep up any kind of relationship with trump unless they do want to pass anything, which realistically, it doesn't seem possible as he enters this year ahead of the election. but she also -- they haven't spoken, i think, for a little bit more than a month, and what we saw at the state of the union was their first interaction as she was in the room with him pointing at him after that photo went viral. it was really stunning to see the degradation of this ree relationship from the beginning of his presidency until now. >> you saw in his state of the union, the road map for the direction, the group he thinks he needs to hold onto, talking about all the issues that keep the base committed to him, starting with the wall and all

the people he was talking about, african-americans, some folks in the gallery reaching out to suburban white women, the trillions tree initiative. who thought this was a president who cared about those kinds of things, but he's got this weakness with those folks who traditionally are republicans but also have a weakness of the president seeming tolerant with other groups in his approach to an undignified manner, i would guess. we saw nancy pelosi's mean reaction to the state of the union, ripping up that state of the union in the most elegant way i've seen anyone rip up anything. yeah, she obviously doesn't want to hide her feelings at this point in terms of how she feels about this president. >> she called it a state of the mind address, not a state of the union address, and she said shefsz ripping it up because she wanted a statement to the

american people. it is the country's divide. the advantage the incumbent upcoming president has, sure, he's likely to lose the popular vote again. but he has a map strategy viable for reelection, he has this job status to envy, taish maybe he needs to get it out of his system today sthchlt going to be, from now until election day, anger? wild anger. >> i don't think he can control himself. when you think about trump, everyone else here was a toddler. in 1989 when bill clinton got acquitted, he came out to the rose garden, he apologized to the country for what he had put the country through, and congress, a republican-controlled congress, for putting them through impeachment. that is not in donald trump. what we heard at the prayer

breakfast today was him saying he was the victim, they put me through something. he is not going to acknowledge it. it is possible he can mute some of it, but all the evidence we have with donald trump suggests he will not be able to. >> these are the supporters, these are the people who wanted him to fight, they wanted him to punch. he wants to deliver a post impeachment trial statement. we'll hear from the president in just a few moments. please stay with us. i'm your mother in law.

and i like to question your every move.

like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. this is my son's favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady. the east room of the white house here, we're waiting for the president of the united states, donald trump, to come into that room and make remarks. his cabinet is there, members of his staff are there, bill barr is there. it's a bit of a pep rally. this this isn't an official white house event but it's sort of a pep rally.

he will deliver what he thinks is vindication. they voted to acquit him yesterday on obstruction of congress and power. one republican senator, mitt romney, voted to convict him. the president with his friends, he has some thank yous, to mitch mcconnell and others who got him through this process, and he's looking ahead to his election and use the platform to keep his base. >> he's trying to keep his base, but he's also doing a little bit of casting to try to get votes from african-americans, mill n millennia millennials, working class women. you've got messages about hbcus,

black unemployment, et cetera. he's got a shrinking base. he has to add to it, he can't go backwards. he has three states that he won by a few thousand votes in each case and he has to try to hold that. >> what we don't know is how does the country process this? we know the democratic base wanted him impeached. we don't know if the democratic base will be motivated by the fact that he was not convicted. the turnout in iowa was not as high as voters anticipated. is that because they're somehow turned off by this? we don't know. the columbus dispatch, phil mattingly's favorite newspaper. "trump not guilty." the reno gazette journal in nevada, "resilient president."

and the big story in salt lake, utah, "mitt romney the one republican to stand up and defy the president." the president mocking him this morning. senator romney took the floor this morning and he said he took an oath to god. his religion is the most important thing to him, and his oath had him convicting him. >> i think it was a surprise for a lot of people, the president like the thought he had all those republicans on board. that is part of his strength. the idea that he's been able to keep all these republicans on board, i think his approval rating with republicans was 94%. so the fact he had to sit at home and watch television, cable news, we know he loves to do that, and see mitt romney giving that very powerful and passionate speech centered on his faith. we all know that mitt romney is a deeply devout mormon. he talked very powerfully about

wanting to do the right thing about his god as well as his family. >> and they were saying mitt -- that mitt romney's vote is important. >> pat cipollone, jay sekulow, mr. philbin there. pam bondi, other members of the legal defense team tells you everything you need to know about the politics of the moment as we move on, the legal team being applauded as they walk into the east room. we assume the president of the united states is to soon follow. they get a front seat, the president's legal team, for this statement. >> john, i was going to say even though senate republicans are going to move on, they're not going to have retribution on mitt romney, they weren't happy

about what he did yesterday. the white house legal team was not happy about what he did yesterday, and the reason is he explored the irrational -- well, we got the president. >> the president of the united states. here we go. >> announcer: ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. ♪ >> thank you very much. thank you.

thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you very much, everybody. we've all been through a lot together, and we probably deserve that hand for all of us because it's been a very unfair situation. i invited some of our very good friends, and we have limited

room, but everybody wanted to come. we kept it down to a minimum, and believe it or not, this is a minimum. but a tremendous thing was done over the last number of months, but really, if you go back to it, over the last number of years. we had the witch hunt. it started from the day we came down the elevator, myself and our future first lady, who is with us right now. thank you, melania. [ cheers and applause ] >> and it never really stopped. we've been going through this now for over three years. it was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars, and this should never, ever happen to another

president, ever. i don't know that other presidents would have been able to take it. some people said, no, they wouldn't have. but i can tell you, at a minimum, you have to focus on this because it can get away very quickly no matter who you have with you. it can get away very quickly. it was a disgrace. had i not fired james comey, who was a disaster, by the way, it's possible i wouldn't even be standing here right now. we caught him in the act. dirty cops. bad people. if this happened to president obama, a lot of people would have been in jail for a long time already. many, many years. i want to start by thanking -- i call them friends because, you know, you develop friendships and relationships when you're in battle and war much more so than

in a normal situation. we've gone through more than any president or administration, and really, i say for the most part, republican congressmen, congresswomen and republican senators, we've done more than any administration in the first few years. you look at all of the things we've done. i watched this morning as they tried to take credit for the stock market from -- let me tell you, if we didn't win, the stock market would have crashed. the market was going up a lot before the election because it looked like we had a good chance to win. then it went up tremendously from the time we won the election to the time we took office, which was november 8 to january 20, and that's all our credit. and leading up to that point was our credit because there was hope, and one of the reasons the stock market has gone up so much

in the last few days is people think we're doing so well, they liked the state of the union speech. [ cheers and applause ] >> it really is, it's a true honor given, and making the state of the union speech, i was with some people that have been around, they've been all over the world. a highly sophisticated person said, you know, no matter where you go in the world, it doesn't make any difference. there was nothing like what i witnessed tonight, the beauty, the majesty of the chamber, the power of the united states, the power of the people in this room. really an amazing evening. i don't think there was anything like that anywhere in the world. you can go to any other country, any other location, any other place. it's the beauty of everything.

it's what it represents and how it represents our country. i want to start by introducing some of the people that are here. i know some are going to be left out, but they worked so hard. and this is really not a news conference, it's not a speech, it's not anything, it's just we're sort of -- it's a celebration because we have something that just worked out. it worked out. we went through hell unfairly. did nothing wrong. did nothing wrong. i've done things wrong in my life, i will admit. not purposely, but i've done things wrong. but this is what the end result is. [ cheers and applause ]

>> we can take that home, honey, maybe we'll frame it. it's the only good headline i've had in the "washington post." every paper is the same, does anybody have them, because they're all like that and i appreciate that. some of the people here have been incredible warriors, they're warriors. and there's nothing from a legal standpoint. this is a political thing, and every time i say this is unfair, let's go to court, they say, sir, you can't go to court, this is politics. and we were treated unbelievably unfairly, and you have to understand we first went through russia, russia, russia. it was all bullshit.

we then went through the mueller repo report, and they should have come back one day later. they didn't, they came back two years later after lives were ruined, after people went bankrupt, after people lost all their money. people came to washington to help other people. bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, i'd say. they came, one or two or three people in particular, but many people. we had a rough campaign. it was nasty. it was one of the nastiest, they say. andrew jackson was the nastiest campaign but we topped it. it was nasty in both the primaries and the election. we thought after the election, it would stop, but it didn't stop. it just started. tremendous corruption. tremendous corruption. so we had a campaign.

little did we know we were running against some very, very bad and evil people with fake dossiers, with all of these horrible, dirty cops that took these dossiers and did bad things. they knew all about it. the fisa courts should be ashamed of themselves. it's a very tough thing. and then we ended up winning on russia, russia, russia. i should have tak it should have taken the one day, as they said, and it took years. bob mueller testified. that didn't work out so well for the other side. but they should have said that first week, because it came out -- is that right, jim jordan? they knew in the first two days, actually -- devin, is that right? two days they knew we were totally innocent. but they kept it going. mark? they kept it going forever because they wanted to inflict

political pain on somebody that had just won an election that, to a lot of people, was a surprise. we had polls that said we were going to win, we had the los angeles times and a few papers, actually, said we were going to win, but it was going to be close. we did win. it was one of the greatest wins of all time, and they said, okay, he won. and, you know, i wrote this down because that was where a thing called the insurance policy to me. when i saw the insurance policy, and that was done long before the election, that was done when they thought that hillary clinton was going to win. and by the way, hillary clinton and the dnc paid for millions of dollars for a fake dossier, and now christopher steele admits that it's a fake because he got sued by rich people.

i should have sued him, too, but when you're president, people don't like suing. i want to thank my legal team, by the way, not for that advice, but for other advice. [ cheers and applause ] >> pat, jay, pat. you guys stand up. great job. right at the beginning, they said, sir, you have nothing to worry about. all of the facts are on your side. i said, you don't understand. that doesn't matter. that doesn't matter. and that was really true. they made up facts. a corrupt politician named adam schiff made up my statement to the ukranian president. he brought it out of thin air. just made it up. they say, he's a screen writwria

failed screenwriter. unfortunately he went into politics after that. he said, don't call me, i'll call you. fortunately for all of us here in our country, we had transcribesers, professional transcribesers. then they said, well, maybe the transcription is not correct. but lieutenant colonel vindman and his twin brother, we had some people that were really amazing, but we did everything. i said, what was wrong with it? they said, they didn't add this word. i said, add it. they're probably wrong, but add it. so not everybody believes they're completely accurate. when you read those transcripts, tim scott, i don't know if tim is here, but he was the first one to call me. he said, sir, i read the transcript. you did nothing wrong. and, mitch, he stayed there

right from the very beginning. he never changed. and mitch mcconnell, i want to tell you, you did a fantastic job. [ cheers and applause ] >> somebody said, you know, mitch is quiet. i said, he's not quiet. he's not quiet. he doesn't want people to know him. and they said, is mitch smart? i said, well, let's put it this way. for many, many years, a lot of very smart, bad in many cases, sometimes good people have been trying to take his place, and to the best of my knowledge, i've

never even heard the subject come up, because they've been wiped out so fast. this guy is great, and i appreciate it, mitch. and he's also given us 191 federal judges, two supreme court judges. we're up to 191. great guy. he's a tough guy to read. i'm good at reading people. tough guy to read. i call 'em. they said, how did you do with mitch? i don't know. that's what makes him good, when you can read somebody. fantastic job. and he understood right from the beginning this was crooked politics. this was crooked politics. how about all these people? they're running for office, they're saying the worst things about me, like eight senators on the democrat side. most of them got wiped out.

they got their 1% or less. most of them got less. decided to go home. let's go back to california. let's go back to wherever they came from. let's go back to new york. how about that one? our new york senator, gi gillibrand. then they take an oath that they will be fair on everything they sign. they're not fair. but here's the beauty. we have four left. they're saying the most horrendous things. it's okay, it's politics. then they're supposed to vote on me. they tried to replace me and then they're supposed to be voting. so i think -- i mean, i think it's incredible. so, mitch, i wanted to thank you very much. incredible. you have some of your folks here and they're incredible people. they've been there right from the beginning, and again, you're out of session. i only told these folks let's do

this today. we did a prayer breakfast this morning, and i thought that was really good. in fact, that was so good it might wipe this out. but by the time we finish this, we'll wipe that one out, those statements. i had nancy pelosi sitting four seats away, and i'm saying things that a lot of people wouldn't have said, but i meant every word, okay? but we have some of the folks that are going to be leaving right after this, and they work hard, and they did work hard. bill cassidy, senator. stand up, bill. what a guy. great man. when i need to know about health insurance and preexisting conditions and individual mandates, i call bill or i call barosso. those two guys know more than anybody. a man who just became a senator -- he's a little bit like me. we have a couple of them. very successful guy in business

and he said, what the hell? i'll run for the senate from indiana. and he ran, and i saw him on television destroying his opponent in a debate. i said, this guy could win, and i got behind him. mark braun, you have done some great job. thank you very much. a man who got james comey to choke, and he was just talking in his regular voice. he's the roughest man -- he's actually an unbelievable -- and i appreciate the letter you sent me today. i just got it. but he's got this voice that scares people. you know, people from iowa can be very tough. we're doing very well in iowa, but i tell you, chuck grassley, he's looking to tell me, now, you tell me, what did you say? he's not being rough, that's

just the way he talks. i think that's when comey announced he was leaking, lying and everything else, right? he choked because he never heard i -- anybody talk like that. he could have given up. chuck grassley is an incredible guy. [ cheers and applause ] >> and a man who is running against a tough, smart campaign. we learned how good she was, right? a great campaigner. at the end of the campaign, i thought she was more for me than you were, josh. she was saying the greatest things about me. you know who i'm talking about. and i went to a great place,

missouri, and i said, who do you have to beat her? and they said, well, we have four people. i said, let me see them. can you imagine i'm interviewing people for the united states senate. this is what i do. where have i gone? but i love it. i love it because we're getting great people. the first one i met was josh holley. he was the attorney general, did a phenomenal job in the state, highly respected. and claire mccaskill. the theory was you couldn't beat her. great campaigner, remember the last campaign she was going to be taken out, and she wins and people say, how did that happen? it didn't happen with him. but she got so friendly toward me. in fact, one of the ads i still have, i'm putting it in the archives as one of the best ads i've ever made, and she tried to convince people that we were

best friends, but josh ended up winning by five or six points. you were unbelievable, you were tough and one of the greatest supporters on the impeachment hooks was josh holley. he was incensed at what they were doing and what they were saying. i had some who said, well, i wish you didn't make the call. that's okay if they need that. it's incorrect, it's totally incorrect. then you have some who used religion as a crutch. they never used it before. an article written today. never heard him use it before. but today, you know, it's one of those things. it's a failed presidential candidate, so things can happen when you fail so badly running for president. but josh holley, i want to thank you. you were right from the beginning. man, did i make a good choice. thank you, josh.

tremendous future. a man who is brilliant and who actually was deceived to an extent, comes from a great state, utah, where my poll numbers have gone through the roof, and one of the senators' poll numbers, not this one, went down big. you saw that, mike? but mike is a brilliant guy. he's difficult. whenever i sign those -- we do sign a lot of legislation, and it's big and powerful, but everybody has to approve it. i see 99-1. 99-1. i say, don't tell me who is the one. is it mike? yes. and he always has a good reason for it, too, by the way. but he is, he's incredible. and right at the beginning, he knew we were right, mike, and i

appreciate it very much. you're just fantastic. say hello to the people of utah and tell them i'm sorry about mitt romney. i'm sorry. okay? [ cheers and applause ] >> we can say mike lee by far is the most popular senator from the state. you've done a great job in many ways. a young woman who i didn't know at all but she's been so supportive, and i've had great support from other people in that state, and she's been so supportive, and she's been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the president. and kelly loeffler, i appreciate it very much. thank you. she saw it very early on. i don't know if we have other senators here, we have other

congressmen, i'll go over them quickly. it helped when we won 197-0. that's got to be a first, kevin, right? is that like a first? the republicans have this image -- see, i say democrats are lousy politicians because they have lousy policy. open borders, sanctuary cities, they have horrible policy. who the hell -- oh, the new policy is raise taxes. they want to raise taxes. all my life i wasn't in politics, but i would say, if you're a politician, you want to say we're going to lower taxes. they want to raise taxes. so they have open borders, sanctuary cities, raise everybody's taxes. get rid of everybody's health care, 180 million people in the united states and they're really happy, and we're going to give you health care that's going to cost more money than the country can make in 30 years if it really does well. so i always say they're lousy politicians, but they do two

things. they're vicious and mean. vicious. adam schiff is a vicious, horrible person. nancy pelosi is a horrible person. and she wanted to impeach a long time ago when she said, i pray for the president. she doesn't pray. she may pray but she prays for the opposite. but i doubt she prays at all. these are vicious people. but they do two things. they stick together. historically, i'm not talking now. they stick together like glue. that's how they impeached, because they had whatever the number is, 220 people, so they don't lose anybody, they'll be able to impeach anybody. you could be george washington. you could have just won the war and they say let's get him out of office. and they stuck together and they're vicious as hell. and they'll probably come back for more but maybe not, because

the republican party's poll numbers, mitch, have now gone up more than any time, i think, since 2004-2005, and you know what happened then. but in normal times, decades, you would call it, that was a little unusual time. it was for a very short period. the republicans' party poll numbers and donald trump's poll numbers are the highest i've ever had. [ applause ] >> it's no way to get your poll numbers up because it's been very unfair for my family, it's been very unfair to the country. think of it. a phone call. a very good phone call. i know bad phone calls. this is a phone call where many people -- i think mike pompeo was probably on the call, many people were on the call. i know that many people.

they heene a apprent -- they have an apprenti. in the case of ukraine, he's a new president. he seems like a very nice person, by the way. his whole thing was he was going to stop corruption. we even have a treaty, 2001, 1999, a signed treaty to say we will work together to remove corruption in ukraine. i probably have an obligation, mr. attorney, to report corruption. but they don't think it's corrupt when ail sornl that made no military, that had no money at all, is working for $300

million up and it goes to romaine r rumania and other countries. is ivanka in the audience? my kids could make a fortune. it's corrupt. but it's not even that, it's just general corruption. and the other thing is mentioned in the call, and something i've told mike pence, our great vice president, i would tell him all the time and i told him when we were on the trip. because he was over there. he never mentioned anything about this when you had your meeting. it's a terrible thing, but and you're always torn about that. we have our countries to buil y on. but tell me, why isn't belgium paying?

why isn't france? tell me what's going on. i told that to all my people, omb. i asked that question, how come germany isn't paying? why isn't germany paying? why is the united states always the sucker. because we're a bunch of suckers. but that's turning around fast. but it makes it harder when stuff like this happens, because you want to focus perfectly. imagine what we could have done. drug prices. think of what we could have done if we had the same genius -- because it's genius. i will say it's genius on the other side, maybe even more so, they took nothing and voted me

for impeachment. they took a phone call, which was a totally appropriate call, and they brought me to the final stages of impeachment. but now we have that gorgeous word. i never thought that word would ever sound so good. it's called total acquittal. so i want to, if i could real fast, just introduce a few other people. i have to start with kevin. man, did you do a job. lucky you're there. lucky you're there. because it wouldn't have worked out. if you don't have the right people, i tell you, kevin mccarthy has done an incredible job. [ applause ]

>> and he loves his job and he loves his country. mitch and kevin, they love what they do. mitch wouldn't even tell you he liked it. i could say, mitch, do you like it? i don't know. he's the greatest poker player, right? kevin would say, i love it, right? i'm going to say you'll be speaker of the house because of this impeachment hoax. i really believe it. i really believe it. and i'm going to work hard on it. i'm going to try and get out to those trump areas that we won by a lot -- and you know, in '18, we didn't win. we just won two seats in north carolina, two wonderful seats in north carolina that were not supposed to be won, but i went and i made speeches, and we had rallies and we did a great job and we won -- we took two seats. nobody writes about that. if we lost them, it would have been the biggest story of the year. we're going to go and do a job

and we're going to win a lot of seats. we're going to win a lot of seats. people are very angry that nancy pelosi and all these guys -- i mean, nadler, i've known him much of my life. he's fought me in new york for 25 years. i always beat him, and i had to beat him another time, and i'll probably have to beat him again, because if they find that i happened to walk across the street and maybe go against the light or something, let's impeach him. so i'll probably have to do it again because these people have gone stone cold crazy. i've beat them all my life and i'll beat them again if i have to. so kevin mccarthy has been great. a few names, right? we're going to do the best we

can. i have my cabinet, but my cabinet is different, i appoint them. i didn't see all of them helping so much. you know, they were running their various bureaucracies, right? my cabinet is great and they're all here, but today is the day to celebrate these great warriors, right? these are great warriors. they really fought hard for us. i'll start with kelly armstrong, north dakota. kelly, thank you. great job. great job. jim banks of indiana. jim. andy biggs, where is andy? boy, oh boy, andy. there's a guy. he's tough. i hear we're doing well in arizona, huh? it's going good, yeah? i saw a poll that was very good for me. i think we have to make sure martha is going to do -- we have some states that are going to be not easy. but arizona has been great and

we're stopping illegal aliens from coming in. we're putting up walls. new mexico, too, a state that's never been in play for republicans. nevada is looking good. we're doing well. there is more spirit now for the republican party by far than the democrats. you know, mike pence just got back from a place, a beautiful place, that chuck grassley knows well. iowa. and he was talking about the fiasco. the democrats can't count some simple votes yet they want to take over your health care system. think of that. but we also had an election out there and we got 98% of the vote. we have two people running, you know. i guess they consider them

non-people. one is a governor, but they're running. they said, who is that crowd over there? it was trump, right, mark meadows? it was trump. this was a trump crowd. and actually a lot of my guys went to iowa, and a lot of friends went there, and we had tremendous -- they say the spirit for the republican party right now is stronger, i think, than it's ever been in the history of our country. i think it's stronger than it's ever been. that includes honest abe lincoln. a lot of people forget abe lincoln. i wish he were here. i would give him one hell of an introduction. he was a republican. abe lincoln. honest abe. bradley burn, alabama. what a great place.

a man who has been an unbelievable friend of mine and spokesman and somebody that i really like, and i know, kelly, you're going to end up liking him a lot. something is going to happen that's going to be very good, i don't know. i haven't figured it out yet, but doug collins, where is he? you have been so great. thank you very much. thank you very much. thank you. really amazing job. a young man who was born with a great gene, because i know how great a politician his father was. he's from georgia. he's solid as a rock and he's a friend of mine, matt gates. thank you, matt. great job. this guy. so he's the ncaa, a couple years

ago in college, wrestling champ. that means you're the best. his record was ridiculous. nobody could beat him. and i see it. every time i see it -- when i first got to know jim jordan, i said, huh. he never wears a jacket. what the hell is going on? he's obviously very proud of his body. and where the congressmen and senators work out, they said he works out, and it's a different kind of workout than ours, isn't it? look at that guy. one day i'm looking, and he looks tough, and i'm looking at those ears, and i say, those

ears have something going on there. did you ever wrestle? yeah, i did. he doesn't talk but i checked. this guy was a top, top wrestler, and when i had the top, i had all the teams. by the way, your super bowl champions are coming, i think, next week or soon, very soon, and every one of them want to be here, and the coach loves us. the coach is great, andy reid, and every one of them want to be here. people love it. but we had all the ncaa championship teams here. they had the golf, the basketball, they had every team here. and one of the teams was wrestling, the wrestling team. was that penn state? penn state won the title. they have a great team. i walked up with jim and it's like i didn't exist. those wrestlers, they grabbed him, they love jim jordan, and we love you, too, because you're

some warrior. [ applause ] >> a woman who became -- we have a couple women that became stars, you two, and i like the name lesco. i liked it. that's why i picked it, i liked the name. i saw the face, i saw the name. she had like seven opponents, right? you have no idea how much the public appreciates how smart, how sharp you are. this i can't tell. i can't tell. they just said, you know, she's really good, she's really talented. i said, let's go. we worked with her, she won her race -- tough race. it's no longer tough, because what she does out there is incredible. arizona loves her. but you were so incredible representing -- i don't see me representing our country and

getting out of this impeachment hoax. what you did was incredible. debbie, please stand up, debbie lesco. [ applause ] >> a man i became very friendly with, i don't know why. certain people call, you take their calls. other people call, if they don't have information, they won't take anybody's call. but other people call, and you duck. this is a guy, he's just a very special guy. his wife i actually like better than him, to be honest. bau because he doesn't know that i know that he didn't actually support me right from the beginning, but she did. and on my worst day, right? on my worst day, my worst -- i won't tell you why it was my worst but it was not one of those good days -- she went on a bus, got many other buses, and women all over north carolina

and they toured north carolina. well, mark was back sort of semi-supporting another candidate which he ended up leaving very quickly. i don't think you had a choice because of your wife. but thank her, and mark meadows is an extraordinary guy. the only problem, i guess -- he would only win by 40 points, but he was announcing he won't be running this time. will someone win your district by at least 20 points, please? he's an incredibly talented man, not just as a politician but as a human being, he's incredible. the way he worked, and jim and all of you guys, the way they worked, it was like their life was at steak. ron santos is another one. he worked so hard. he called me and said, sir, i'd like to run for