then you have iran governed by a radical shia cleric the ayatollah as a religious figure. he's not a king. he's a religious figure who believes he is calling is to trigger an apocalypse so that this messianic figure comes out. that's what he believes is well in the world. we just gave him $150 billion so he can buy or build a nuclear weapon one day. then radical jihad is our only spreading across the world. isis has affiliates in over a dozen countries. they are a public. they are a sunni movement. they are spreading ever. so what has this president down in the face of all this? he is guiding our military. who said golf? [laughter] i would have no problem with them golfing if he rebuild our military. that's a strong word, gutting

our military. al-qaeda evidence that we have the smallest army and the smallest baby we've had in 100 years. we will soon have the smallest air force we have ever had, ever. the smallest air force we've ever had. the average age of an air force plane is 27 which means that people flying the planes are younger than the plain. not a good sign. we are gutting our military. and by the way, republican wanted when they passed the stupid question that i voted against which has nothing to balance our budget. defense been is not the cost of our debt but it's leaving us vulnerable and weaken. noddle is a leaving us vulnerable it is so unfair to men and women in uniform. we are asking them to go into harm's way. we are still asking american servicemen and women to step into harm's way but now they have to do it with less equipment, less training analyst people alongside them. with rules of engagement that don't just not allow them to win

but put their lives in increased danger. that's what i'm clear with everybody. if you elect me president we're going to undertake a reagan style rebuilding of the united states military. [applause] >> when i'm president we are going to have a real war on terror. i don't like war. i don't want war. we are a peaceful people. who once wore? i have young kids. ward means one of them may have to fight in a. i don't want war. ice is an article islam is an enemy of peace. there is no negotiation with them. [applause] there isn't. and by the way, to defeat radical islam will have to work with muscles to do.

muslims that hate them come to. there are muslims who don't like radical islam. picking up short as a moslem. he's ready to fight them. [applause] the president of egypt as a moslem the he's ready to fight them. but they need, because we are america. we need to lead. they need to provide troops. they need to buy people on the ground to fight isis but we need to get engage. we are the leader of the free world and if we do we can defeat isis. the best intelligence agency the world are going to find them. the rebuilt military is going to destroy the. what happens if we catch one of them alike what they are not getting a lawyer or the right to remain silent. they are going to guantánamo. [cheers and applause] we need to be an ally against -- begin to our allies but look what's happened israel.

personal a potential as a nation with a special-purpose. it was founded as a homeland for the jewish people after the holocaust so that never again with are not be a place for jewish people to live in peace. the jewish state. i also believe geopolitically it makes sense to be israel's ally. why? while the middle east is the most unstable region in the world, there is one pro-american free enterprise democracy in the middle east, the state of israel. [applause] >> today we have a president who treats the state of israel and its prime minister with less respect than what he gives the ayatollah and iran. that's why the other day at the debate when the issue came up with donald companies i want to be neutral because i want to work out a deal between the palestinians and israelis, i don't know if he realizes this or not, i don't think he is instantly anti-issue but his policies and as a. how can work out a deal with the palestinian authority who teaches four euros it is of

course thing to kill jews. how can you reach peace agreement with palestinian authorities to condemn some of the files all of it but in arabic they are like celebrating these people as grave markers. as grave markers said that a great thing encouraging people and inciting them to violence. i wish it was possible. when you force israel into a negotiation that has no chance of achieving peace, you are weakening israel. donald trump may not take a side i'm going to take a psychic i will be on israel's side when i am president of the united states. [applause] the world is going to know we are on israel's side. my first day in office because after i'm done we can all of barack obama's unconstitutional executive orders and next thing i'm going to do is repeal barack obama's deal with iran. i'm going to cancel it. [applause]

>> and by the west part of our national security we need to take care of our veterans begin. i speak about this everywhere i go. [applause] as a senator from florida, literally want out of for calls to my office is a veteran having a hassle with the veterans administration. before everything am about to set which recognizes this. the are really good people at the va. there are. i've met them. they are good. a lot of them are veterans. they care. they are just as frustrated. they know what they're working hard there our bosses that are not doing a good job and no one is held accountable. been a bad it's gotten? today call to the va suicide hotline go to voicemail. they go to voicemail. about a week ago a veteran took his life. and left a message on voicemail and they called them, they happen to call back a after he took his life.

know what has been held accountable for this. no one has been fired at the power to fire them know because i here in ithaca i passed a law along with jeff miller. we passed a law called the va accounted build act which gave the va secretary the power to fire senior executives at 50 that were not doing a good job and to not using it. cannot find anybody. when i' i am president so will e held accountable. they will be fired. [applause] while we're figuring this out veterans or something. you have a va hospital that's years behind schedule them millions over budget. no one knows what's going on. no one can fix it. that's why when i present our veterans will be up to take their benefits to any hospital or any doctor that they want to go see. it's their benefit. [applause] let mattitude is one more thing

because one of the things i put on the camp until, i probably knew this before but a lot of our veterans don't stop serving with a couple. if you go to any fire station in america you're going to run into veterans. it to go into any police department you will run into veterans. how many voters come home, resurfaced or acted a full tank of a couple and they become police officers. they keep surfing. you read the press, all the anti-police do. watch that is classified in a chicago. do you going to do with all the hassle of those protesters? the police department. chicago police department, people for fms at home. they want to go home at night to the kids. wanted and had their head cracked open by some thug. these people are getting with the stuff every day. the other day i was reminded of the veteran federal it is becaun you're in virginia, the news was a sort of three police officers had been shot the day before.

one of them had died. the one who died was on her first day on the job. she was a marine reservist. so i think we should always stop and think police officers and firefighters and first responders for what they do for our country. [applause] >> as you can see there's a lot of work to be done. we have problems. we can solve them all. i remember growing up, i said this the other night, my grandfather was a huge influence that he lived with us for the first the teen years -- 13 years of my life. he would always sit on the porch and smoked one of those three cigars and we smoked a couple together i've had to cut back. i've got cut back. i've given up. my wife hates the. she does let me inside or outside the house so what -- i see some people clapping. that's un-american. [laughter]

but anyway, it's like the hardest smell to get rid of. nevermind eric. [laughter] somebody said you can get it off your breath, drink rum. okay. [laughter] [inaudible] >> come to the villages, yeah. in about 10 years i'm ready. he was sitting on the porch of her home and one of the stories has always stuck with me. he was a great storyteller. when he was young once of the first jobs jihad was he was a lector at the sigar factors in cuba they would roll them by hand and in the early turn-of-the-century they didn't have tv or radio. they might have had radio. the way you kept the workers entertained if they would hire someone coming to repair a big deal. .edu and the rule areas of cuba

you had read. my grandfather did. they would hire someone to sit in the front to read. first read a newspaper and then they would read novels. he was incredibly well read you want to be a great storyteller he told the story and what he described it always stuck with the. he said i was born in 1899. growing up we lived just outside of air force base in las vegas. all kinds of war planes in the sky all the time. mccarron international airport, very busy. but i was going up that didn't happen. remember the days after 9/11 there were no airplanes in the sky? imagine going up with no airplanes. they didn't even exist when he was a kid. certainly not in cuba even years after that. he said we didn't even fly airplanes. and yet one night in the summer of 1969 he watched on television as a human being a man stepped foot on the moon. is imagine for a young boy, an older gentleman at the time when he was a boy who grew up looking

at the moon as this faraway thing, to watch a human being step foot on the moon was an extraordinary thing. was impactful. what you took away from it was americans can do anything. americans can put a man on the. what can these people not do? that's in fact that he took from it. [applause] that's who we are. that's who we have always been i believe that still who we are. we are still the descendents of go-getters, every single one of us. if you're an american your descendent of a go-getter. you wanted to send someone who refused to accept the circumstances of their birth and came to america in search of a better life come in search of fulfilling the opportunity. you are a descendent of an immigrant and it was you, your parents, grandparents or great grandparents. you want the direct descendent of some of the lives or else is that i refuse to live in a place

that is holding me back because god has given me the potential to be bored so i will go somewhere who will allow me to be who i was meant to be. [applause] or you are the descendent if you want to believe or the back of pilgrims and settlers, people who let the old country to come in because they were persecuted or because they wanted more. you are the dissonance of pioneers, of people who did know what was west but they went west and they settled land that no one had ever lived on before, or you are the descendents of slaves and the people who overcame the most evil institution imaginable and the segregation that followed to stake the claim in the american dream. is the blood that runs in our veins. we are not a stagnant society. we are literally the descendents of go-getters. it's in our dna. that's why one of the reasons that makes this such an upwardly mobile and vibrant country. that hasn't changed. what's changed is that every major institution in society has failed us. our political parties have

failed us. instead of becoming a place to pursue public policy they have become machines for perpetual reelection. our political process has failed us. instead of becoming a place where people go to serve the people, it becomes a place where people go to be served by the people. who are more interested in keeping the title than in making a difference. where it doesn't matter if so security and medicare, it's never the right time to deal with it. they can cost me my next election. we have been failed by the media. i know it's easy to say beat up on the media. they cover politics as entertainment instead of a serious discourse. [applause] >> because i promise you this, i promise you this, if they stand here right now and hurl a personal insult against one of my opponents i will get a ton of coverage from those cameras. but if i don't, only a handful of people will find that this

event ever happened. okay? we've been failed by higher education, by a stagnant higher education system that's a monopoly. by colleges and universities were the only ones allowed to same way they did six years ago while nothing else looks like it did six years ago. we graduate young americans with a degree and they cannot find a job. the worst part of is they borrowed the money to pay for that degree. not the thousands of dollars in student loans and the only job they can get they could affect any way without the degree and without the loan. we have been failed by every major institution. that big businesses we celebrated, the captains of industry that were once he rose in america, every day we find out they cheated, lied to their stockholders comply to their investors, took multimillion dollar bonuses while the company was going in the tank. we have been failed by everyone. people have lost confidence. in all of our institution and alleged anger and frustration. that's what leadership matters.

leadership doesn't come to you and say let's be angry and get angry there. leadership says yes, we have real problems but we've also got answers. we have solutions. the solution does a lot of one person. i get uncomfortable when people say we put all our faith in you. i'm a man. you cut me, i will bleed. you heard me i will feel pain. i make mistakes. asked my wife. [laughter] we don't put our confidence in an infestation. we put our confidence in a republic that says that we the people govern ourselves by allowing our fellow citizens to serve for a brief period of time in public office. then they are supposed to come out and join us again and also else to do it. we put our days in a system of government and laws where we may not always agree but we have awake -- with a way to work for them. we replace people who do bad jobs. we send people back to do a good job. we vote on a set of principles and ideals and we don't always get it right but we always have a way to fix it.

that's a we put our faith into we put our real thick analyze and in our communities. we know the biggest impact we will never have is the job we have as husband and wife come as a mother and father. we put our faith in fact the real america, it's not our government in america is not a government. america is a country made up of people who every single they are making a difference. when they fall into today at sunday school, they made a difference. when they get up tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. and open up the door of the small business that employs 10 people, they made a difference. win tomorrow they will leave work an hour early to give a next-door neighbor a right to a doctor's visit because that elderly gentleman or lady can't drive themselves. the government didn't ask. they made a difference. when they take $10 contributed to the church or to the charity not because of a tax break but because their faith teaches them that caring for one another is

how we serve the lord. they make a difference. when you visit the crisis pregnancy centers that i saw in south carolina where these heroic women who would never have a book written about them, it would have have an article written about them, and will never have a movie made about them are saving lives a convincing young girls not to give up on a life. they are making a difference. [applause] that is what we place our faith in. this is who we have always been. this is who we must remain. this election as much about that as anything else. every country in the world, you go to latin america, go to the third world, they are bedeviled by leaders to stand up and say i'm going to be a strongman figure i'm going to solve all your problems. give me power and i will make your life better. it always ends in disaster. always. our founders knew better. our founders didn't want that kind of system. our founders want us of a system

in which government was small and limited and the power within a government divided because they didn't trust people. because they didn't trust what men and women do when given power especially absolute power. now we're being asked to abandon that by society at large and by politics today. and we shouldn't. we will regret it for a long time if we do. so instead i ask you in this election to embrace what made us great to begin with. to embrace leaders that understand what the proper role of government is come to embrace leaders who do not ask you to give them their vote on fear and hopelessness. but instead to vote for them on the basis of a great our country can be if we do what needs to be done. i believe with all my heart and i hope you do as well that if we do what we need to do we have a chance to lead this country better than it's ever been. the 21st century is made for us. there are literally hundreds of millions of people on this planet who couldn't afford to buy things from us now. i'm talking about people who

were starting a decade ago. i'm talking about people that two decades ago were literally eating, drinking water out of puddles and those people drive cars. now these people own homes and now these people take vacations, and now these people buy things in stores. because after communism fell, free enterprise broke out around the world and it lifted hundreds of millions from poverty into prosperity. they want to buy things from us and want to trade with us and want to be our investors and to partners and our collaborators and our clients and their customers. the 21st century is about innovation to the are no more integrated -- know what is more innovative than americans. the 21st century is made for us. if we do what needs to be done. that's why i'm running for president because i want this generation to do its part. america is a special country and i know this personally because

of my parents in 1956 had stayed in cuba or gone to any other nation on earth, i may never have been born they didn't have me and told they were in the '40s and just be very optimistic about the future to have two kids when you're in your 40s. [laughter] [applause] but more importantly even if i had been born, if they've got any other nation on earth there's no way i'm standing on a stage in front of my fellow citizens a spy ring to the highest office in the land. in almost every society that's ever existed, success depends on who you come from. in almost every society on earth your future is largely determined for you on the day you were born. if your parents are wealthy or powerful, you will probably be wealthy and powerful in most societies. and if they are not, no matter how hard you work or how good you are, you are usually stuck in that stage in life you were born into. america is different.

because we are found on the belief that we have a god-given right to life and liberty and to pursue happiness, because were found on the belief that everyone has a god-given right to go as far as the talent and the work will take them, americans are different. it's been different not by accident. we are not special by accident. this didn't happen on its own. it happened because for over two centuries each generation before us did what they had to do. and anyone who tell tells you wd to it great and easy and now it's gone so hard is lying to you. there's never been an easy time in american history. we were founded by declaring independence from the most powerful empire in the world. then we had a civil war that almost into the country. then we have a first world war which was bloody on another continent. then we had a great depression that white people up as soon as i was over we had a second report that we almost lost. had we gotten in a year later it

would've been lost. then but after the second world war ended we were plunged into a long and dangerous cold war. world war ii impaired ended before we were in korea and not long after that, the genetic the '60s were a difficult time. political leaders were assassinated. america was being ripped apart at the seams by the civil rights movement in vietnam. the '70s saw president resign in this grace, long cast lots to disco music, horrible things. [laughter] [applause] >> some people like disco music. i don't know, whatever. we survived it. when have we ever had it easy? will be to look back and say that was a time when there were no problems. no. it's never happened. because being special isn't easy. because having what we have is not easy. every generation before us had to do something. every generation before us was

called to great sacrifice, hard decision, tough choices and hard work. and they did it. for over two centuries each generation before us did not have the next. for over two centuries each generation left the next better off. my friends, but time has come for this generation to do its part. the moment has arrived for this generation to do what needs to be done. i would submit to you that while our challenges are significant, i think they're easier than the challenges ever faced by some of the people who came before us. i think balancing our budget is easier than defeating nazi germany. i think fixing our tax code is easier than the cold war. i think repealing and replacing obamacare will not be nearly as hard as making it through the great depression. they are hard but it's worth doing. i want you to know what this country, which i am president we are going to do. when i'm president of the united states we will confront our challenges. we will embrace opportunities. we will try to do what each

generation before us has done, and that is whatever it takes to make the next better off than ourselves. when our work is done despite how dark things seem now, a difficult and maybe, i want you to know what history is going to write about us. i want you to know what history will say about you cannot and those of us who we are at this moment. it will recognize we live in a tough time. that would that in a time when the economy was changing and disrupting peoples lies come when the world seem to be spiraling out of control, our institutions were feeding us. after eight years of barack obama and one crazy election, we came this close to getting it wrong. we did. we came this close to losing the promise of america. but then in 2016 we remember who we were and we remembered what america was. and like the generations that came before us we came to our senses and to confront our problems and we salted and. we embraced the opportunity. went our work was done because we did what needed to be done, our children became the freest

and most prosperous americans that ever lived. and the american dream didn't just survive it reach more people and change more lives than ever before because we did what needs be done. the 21st century became the greatest they are in american history. they became a new american century. this is the opportunity before us if we do what needs to be done. i'm running for president so that we do it. when i'm president for the first time in eight years you will have a president that is a president for all americans. as conservative as anyone running for president, as concern for anyone who's ever been president, a conservatism that didn't just our two years ago as i ramp up to run for president the one that is evidenced by 15 years of public service in which the lights go off at inopportune time last night and then come back on. [applause] it's a message. that's happened at a couple of events but it's one of two things. someone leaned on something on

the wall or the chinese have had us once again. [laughter] [applause] >> i am as conservative as anyone running as everyone for president, and yet i believe you can be a principled and strong conservative. and yet be a president all-americans. because if you want to president of the united states, you have to love the american people, all of them, even the ones who don't love you back. you have to serve all of the american people from even the ones who don't like you. even the ones who don't vote for you. even the ones who say nasty things about you. if you don't want to do that, become a talk show host. ebitda want to do that, then become a blogger. but if you want to be president then you must be willing to be president for all americans, someone who tries to bring us together, not deliberately divide us and that's the kind of president i want to be every single day. so i'm here to ask you for your

vote. [cheers and applause] and i'll close with this. i'll close with this. five years ago i came in a couple times. i was an underdog running for the u.s. senate. my opponent was the sitting governor of florida lead in the polls by 50 points, had 10 times as much money. super popular and no one thought we could win. but you believed in me and you gave me a chance. i told you defeated i would go to washington and stand up to the obama agenda and offer a clear alternative, and that's what i've done for the last five years. i'm honored to be your u.s. senator but in five years i concluded very quickly that while a member of congress can help shape the agenda, only a president can set the agenda, the only way to set our right agenda after seven years of a

bad president is to have a good one. the only way to make our country stronger after seven years of the week president is to have a strong one. that's why i chose not to run for reelection to the senate and aspire to the presidency of the united states. that's what hope i can earn your support and your prayers so that together we can leave our children and your grandchildren what they deserve to inherit, the single greatest nation in history of all mankind. thank you so much and god bless you. thank you. [applause] ♪ >> the senate is about the gavel in taking up the nomination of john king to the education secretary today. he has been heading the department on a temporary basis since january after arne duncan step down.

president obama nominated mr. king on february 11 in a confirmation vote is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god only wise, great is your faithfulness. inspire our lawmakers to focus on your priorities, striving to do your will on earth even as it is done in heaven. during moments of confusion,

award degrees annie duke the