the road to the majority never ends and if we put the same energy to defending our principles as we gave in the past years, i know we will succeed. we're on the right side and it will be the american people who are better off because of it. so, it's real simple, let's get to work. let's win this election, let's continue on our mission to bring more opportunity, more prosperity and more freedom to this country that we all care about so passionately and finally, as a person who has watched this movement, grew up in this movement, it's exciting. thank you. we all have taken on a vocation to make america better and we, each generation, each generation has this responsibility and it has been the honor of my lifetime to walk in this journey with each and every one of you. thank you, thank you, thank you. god bless. thank you so much, appreciate it. thank you. [applaus

[applause] >> yesterday at faith and freedom coalition, we're live there now, their 2018 conference continuing this friday morning, with a variety of lawmakers, trump administration officials, including epa administrator scott pruitt, house majority leader kevin mccarthy and senator majority leader mitch mcconnell. kellyanne conway and housing secretary ben carson live on c-span2. ♪ . [applause] >> thank you. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, the executive director of the faith and freedom coalition, .

[applause] good morning and welcome back. we once again have an exciting morning in store and hard to follow on the heels of what we had yesterday, but i think that we're going to have a full and encouraging morning. would you join me in prayer before we get started. heavenly father, we thank you so much for your abundant grace. thank you for your constant love. we thank you for your boundless mercy. we thank you that you promise to always be with us and to never forsake us. even this morning, we ask for your presence in this room and even in this hotel, we also ask, lord, that each of our speakers, we ask for your wisdom, for your grace as they communicate with us and we also

ask for protection in all of their own endeavors as they seek to serve the people of america and to serve your purposes. we ask for all of those in attendance today that you would bless and honor them as we seek to honor and bless all of you, so we ask all of these things in jesus' name, amen. would you also join me in welcoming william baletta, who is going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. [applause] >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [applause]

♪ oh say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪

♪ and the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave ♪.

[applause] >> thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, the chairman of the faith and freedom coalition, ralph reed. ♪ >> good morning. wow! wasn't stacy great? incredible talent. you know, we've already heard from the speaker of the house and senator ted cruz and senator marco rubio and the chairman of the house ways and means committee, and the chairman of the senate finance committee, and i could go on and on. i think half the leadership in the senate and the house,

second ranking republican in the u.s. senate, john cornyn and we're just getting going. we've got two more days. and i am so deeply honored to recommend back our next speaker, he's been here before. he and i became good friends when he was attorney general of oklahoma and he spoke three or four years ago, he's been a dear friend of faith and freedom. you know, a lot of people don't know this, he was sharing this with me back stage, but he actually has a background as a religious liberty first amendment attorney associated with the rutherford institute back in the early to mid 1990's. if you remember the rutherford institute, it was a forerunner of alliance defense fund, and the american center for law and justice, and the beckett fund

and one of the first organizations out there fighting for free speech rights and free exercise rights for christians. scott was then elected to the oklahoma state senate in 1998, where he served with distinction, working to protect innocent human life and reduce taxes and regulation. he was elected attorney general of of oklahoma in 2010, where, along with a group of other very forward-leaning, tough, smart, conservative attorneys general, like from florida and sam olin in georgia and pat morrissey west virginia, running for the u.s. senate there, they began to sue the obama administration for the illegal overreach and suing for subsidies under obamacare. our next speaker sued the

environmental protection agency under obama 14 times while he was attorney general of oklahoma. [applause] >> and by the way, he was an unapologetic of the first amendment rights for people of faith. for example, he sent a memorandum to every public school in the state of oklahoma when the a.c.l.u. was threatening some of them with lawsuits and said, students in oklahoma who are christians have every right to share their faith with others, including the distribution of tracks and bibles and other literature. you can applaud that. [applaus [applause] >> president trump appointed him last year to be the 14th administrator of the environmental protection agency where he has brought sanity to an agency that under the prior administration was notorious for its job killing regulations and regulatory overreach.

he has ensured that the federal government is enforcing tough regulations and laws to ensure that our air is clean and our water is pure. you won't hear this from the dominant left-wing media, but the environment is improving markedly under our next speaker and under president trump and their policies, and he now enforces those policies based on scientific inquiry and not based on politics or ideology. and i think it's about time. [applause] >> and by the way, he led the way in ensuring that the united states withdrew from the paris climate accord which would have cost two million american jobs and would have shaved trillions off of our gdp. i know the left and the media like to go after this man, but the other way at a cabinet

meeting, president trump turned to him and said, scott, i want you to know we've got your back and you're doing a great job. and we've got his back as well. please give a warm faith and freedom welcome to epa administrator scott pruitt. [applause] ♪ >> thank you. thank you very much. it's good to be back at faith and freedom and i really appreciate ralph's kind words and all that he does to advance religious liberty and all that you do. we saw how important that was this week with jack and the great victory that took place in the supreme court, that protected the baker, and we should celebrate that this week and understand that it makes a

difference. several years ago i had a pleasure of travelling with my church to romania, it's the first time i traveled abroad and went to romania, a revolution occurred in that country and i was visiting with a pastor in romania and going to the church that existed in the 1950's and '60s and i saw the pictures of pastors, as i saw that picture and was there with that pastor-- [crowd talking] [applause] >> you know, what's interesting about this time of discussion, here we are talking about free speech, religious liberty and folks won't let you engage in times.

the left doesn't want to talk about truth. the left doesn't want to talk about results. they just want to shout, and they just want to try an intimidate as opposed to what's being done in this administration. there's great change happening across the country. as i was sharing with you, as i was sharing with you, as i went through that church in romania with that pastor i asked him about the pictures up on the wall from the 1950's and '60s and said did you all meet during that time frame? he said, yes, we met every week. if we met this this house of worship there was someone always in attendance from the government and listened to everything we said and if we took outside the four walls of this church what we learned inside the walls of the church we were persecuted and prosecuted. i will tell you there are some in the country today look at religious liberty and look at free exercise of religion the same way, they believe we have a right to exercise our religious belief inside the walls of the church, but when

we go to the public square and advance truth and confront the culture with the truth of scripture outside the four walls of the church that's where they say it has to stop. thank goodness that we have a president, thank goodness that we have a leader of this country who stands unapoll g get-- unapologetical unapologetically with that will stand for religious freedom in this country. i will tell you that type of courage is why the president is in the white house today. i believe he's in the white house for two reasons today, because of great courage, and about getting results. and there's great change happening in this country today because of his leadership and there's great change happening at the epa, and with great change comes great opposition. i want to tell you what's going on in the epa the last 16 or so

months, the changes we're making are transforming our country for the better. as ralph indicated, everybody knows about regulatory reform and it was desperately needed because we had an agency under the previous administration was weaponized against certain sections of our economy. we you have an agency and a president in the pass administration that declared a war on the economy and war on coal, think about that i was the first administrator in history to go underground in a coal mine in pennsylvania, 1100 feet down and feet in. i'm a little claustrophobic. it's a tremendous experience, but standing underground with about 30 coal miners and telling them the president had a message for them and the president's message to them was the war on coal is over. and you should have seen the emotion in their faces, the joy of knowing that they could go to work in pennsylvania and

ohio and all parts of the country and do what they'd done for generations, provide power and generation to this country, in a cost effective way. a war on coal, the war on fossil fuel is over and as ralph indicated, the president stood a year ago this past friday on june 1st, and declared that america was going to exit the paris accord because it doesn't put america first. that's a decision that took tremendous courage, tremendous fortitude. the president stood against that and guess what happened the economy is agreeing and the president was substantial there, and we should celebrate that. [applaus [applause] >> just one little fact for you, one little fact. from 2000-2014, this country reduced our carbon footprint almost 20% through innovation and technology and we did that leading the world, we had nothing to be apologetic in going to paris.

this country is leading the way in making sure the environment is protected, but also we're seeing jobs and growth. we've always done it that way and the president recognized that and said we're going to put america first, not last. we're not going to be apologetic, and we're going to exit that paris accord and environment, and he did a great job this a decision. if we see his leadership in america first, it's not just with environmental issues. we see it in tax reform, see it with trade policy, see it with national security, we're safer today and more prosperous because of the president's leadership to put america first and i hope you recognize that and celebrate that this week. [applause] not only has the president put america first and not only we seeking to see change and make decisions by making sure we don't pick winners and losers as we make decisions in regulations, but secondly, we are engaged in restoring balance between government and its citizens. you know, the past

administration began with washington. this administration begins with individuals. this administration recognizes that private property ownership in the states matter and they care about air quality and water quality and we can advantage the jobs agenda at the same time we have partnership as opposed to adversity. let me give you a couple of examination. the previous administration had waters in the state rules and you probably know that. and they are redefining what the water in the united states is. they did that not to improve air quality. they did it because they want today make decisions about land use, that declared that puddles and dry creek beds and drainage ditches across the country were waters in the united states, farmers and ranchers and those building subdivisions the first place they'd have to stop to get to permission to use the

land is washington d.c. nonator what state it would be. last year i was in salt lake city, utah and standing outside of a subdivision that was being built and with the governor and a member of the army corps of engineers and i remember the army corps of engineers was at the drainage ditch at the subdivision, he said, scott, that drainage ditch is a water of the united states. and i looked back at him and i said well, it's not going to be anymore and i will tell you that that kind of decision of the past administration put washington first and american citizens second. it didn't put the people of this country first in that regard. this president made a commitment, in fact, on february 28th of last year, he signed an executive order directing me to fix that. and we are fixing that right now and this year there's going to be a new definition. [applause] >> there's going to be a new definition of what the water of the united states is and guess what it's not going to be, a drainage ditch that makes up a

subdivision. we saw that with the power plant, they used r egg tri power to try to do what, shut down generation of electricity because of fossil fuels. because the generation shift of how we generate electricity and guess who stepped in? the supreme court. it had never been done in history for the supreme court to enter a stay against a rule while it's pending in a lower court level, but the supreme court did that because of the very much unlikely hood that it was lawful on what they did. the president also directed me, scott, fix that rule. guess what's going to happen in 2018 along with fixing that, the clean power plant will go away and we'll have clarity what authority this agency has in that space and make sure we don't pick winners and losers anymore. [applause] so whether it's fixing the clean power plant, these are examples of us choosing to make sure that

regulatory authority, once again, is not use today pick winners and losers and we recognize that farmers and ranchers in iowa, farmers and ranchers in mississippi, those involved in jobs and productivity in the country they want clean air and water and we'll work with them to achieve that. air quality is better since the trump administration came into play. and 10% better ozone. and we have super sites that we clean up. this year as many as ten times the number of sites cleaned up under this administration than what existed with the obama administration in one year, we're making progress at the same time that regulations are being decreased. now, let me say this to you, there are many here in washington d.c. that tell you, and tell folks all over the country that we have to choose between jobs and protecting the environment. that is a false choice. this country's never done that. since 19-- since 1970's when the clean

water act and clean air act were adopted we've seen almost a 75% reduction in air pollution under the clean air act, at the same time we've grown our gdp by almost 270 plus percent. this country does it better than anybody in the world in advancing jobs and advancing the economy and protecting our environment, you know why? because you care. because of private party ownership and people saying we can do both and this president, this administration, and my leadership at the epa. we're not going to engage in a false choice to say that we cannot be about jobs at the same time we're advancing the environment. we're going to choose both and things are happening across this country. there's been optimism. i've been to 30-plus states around the country and farmers and ranchers, oil and gas and people indicated as i indicated, private property owners as well as those who care about all of these issues, air, water, land quality, they are excited and optimistic about what's happening and that's something that we should celebrate as a nation and we

should export to the rest of the world and not be apologetic about that. it's an exciting time. [applause] now >> as we do these things, putting america first, do these things about regulatory reform and restoring better outcome in the environment, i will tell you it comes with tremendous challenges because there's a status quo that dominates this town. there is a mindset that things shouldn't change. under the past administrations, the most prosperous, the most beneficial place to be was what in washington d.c. this administration's putting power back with the people. and we're seeing that kind of change and so with that tremendous change comes tremendous, i believe, challenge and i will say to you, as you gather here today and as you go back to your respective states, we have to recognize what's at issue. this is a transformational time. there are certain times in history that when you live in them you recognize what's

happening to impact generations into the future. this is one of those times. this is reminiscent of the 1980's, this is reminiscent of when reagan was in office saying we can do better for the american people. we must embrace, we must advance, we must make change to ensure that future generations recognize that we can achieve better outcomes to the environment and also jobs and not engage in this false choice. we've got to take that message across the country and i would say this to you and ask your help in this regard. we as an american people need to answer the question, what is true environmentalism because there have been those in this town the last decade or so have told us the answer to that question is prohibition, although we have natural resources that we've been blessed with, put up fences and do not touch. i believe to whom much is given much is required and i believe this nation has been blessed with enormous natural resources and we have obligation to feed

the world power the world and god has given us the resources and to do better to mankind and with stewardship going forward. i will submit to you that true environmentalism is not prohibition, true environmentalism is stewardship and we do it better than anybody in that regard. we need to embrace that message, advance that message and make sure that country doesn't revert back to the false choices, regulatory power of agencies picking winners and losers, saying we have to choose between jobs and environment. we must choose a better path, the american people deserve a better future in that regard and this president is leading that effort and i ask for your help. he asks for your help to advance that all over the country to ensure that if we make these changes during this key time that future generations recognize that this country is a blessed country and this country has an opportunity to be a beacon to

the rest of the world. i appreciate what you do. [applause] i appreciate what you do, i appreciate your encouragement, i appreciate your support, and i just pray that if we gather and go out from here that we continue to advance the message of religious liberty, free exercise freedom generally and transform the future. god bless you, and i appreciate the time.

♪ >> are you kidding me, winning for america. >> don't ask. >> pro-life women, we were not welcomed here. kellyanne conway was not invited. why are you laughing? it's a women's march. >> and respected congress woman has a black suit, and this is self-congratulatory and aggrandizement, but it doesn't help the victims, but again, we feel strongly that the land belongs to israel and that the u.s. government has to stand in lockstep with israel on this one. ♪

♪ ♪ [applause] you're so nice, thank you, thank you so much. it's an honor to be with you all. oh, sit down. you're fine. thank you so-- it's always an honor to be here with faith and freedom coalition and my friend ralph

reed, for america, so thrilled to be a part and link arms with you and we're working on the same issues. elizabeth elliott said the fact that i'm a christian, the fact that i'm a woman doesn't make me a different kind of christian, but the fact that i'm a christian makes me a different kind of woman and i'm honored to be in a group of different kind of women this morning and honored to represent different kind of women. it's important for us to be together today to celebrate life, to work together for life to support israel, to fight for religious freedom, to fight for ceasing sex trafficking. you're not alone, there are women who feel the way you do with a the women's march and foul-mouthed comedians that take on other women because they work in this administration. you're not alone, there are millions of of us together and we're not only advocating from truth we're working at the

local, state and federal level, but we're running for and winning public office and i get to introduce you today to a different kind of woman. a woman named marsha blackburn, yeah. [applause] >> marsha's been a member of the house since 2000, incidentally she's running for a very important seat in the u.s. senate in my birth state of tennessee. she's no stranger to adversity. she went to college on a 4-h scholarship and worked her way through college selling books door-to-door with southwestern book company and i think that god was preparing her to go to washington, all the doors getting slammed in her face. but here is why she's my hero. marsha is 100% pro-life. not just the kind of congress woman that shows up to vote either, she's a fighter. she served on the front lines of the pro-life movement. she chaired the investigative

panel on lives, and that's a fancy way to say that she, with her team on the committee, stopped planned parenthood for selling fetal body parts, she did it. [applaus [applause] >> and believe me, people didn't love her for it. there was nine criminal referrals that came out of that, out of that investigation and doj has those now. i look forward to seeing how that works out. she sponsored the born alive survival abortions act and legislation to prevent taxpayer funding from abortion and got the sba's distinguished leader award. and by the way, all of this has not endeared her to the left or silicon valley. twitter recently took down her ad, which i urge all of you to go watch, because she specifically referred to the battle to stop planned parenthood from selling fetal body parts. they didn't like that, but she

stood strong on this issue. she is a card carrying conservative, second amendment supporter who sometimes carries a gun in her purse and by the way, she has stood with the president, stood for her country, and always stands for the national anthem. won't you join me today in welcoming my pro-life hero, marsha blackburn, the future senator from tennessee. [applause] ♪ >> thank you so much. i will tell you, i am absolutely thrilled to be here with you today. thank you so much for having me here. thank you, also, i'm so grateful for the way you all fight for our values and so grateful that you would take your time to be here today and get into this fight that we're going to be in in 2018.

i have to tell you, it's great to be a cheerleader for our movement and i think we're all grateful to have a president who is leading this movement. he is doing a wonderful job. [applause] and penny mentioned that i am running for the senate and certainly looking forward to that race, and to the u.s. senate, i'm going to take those same conservative values that i've had in the house and put those to work in the senate and i'm taking that same energy. she mentioned the investigation that i led against planned parenthood and the fact that we did 15 criminal referrals on what was transpiring between planned parenthood and the

third-party body parts sellers, and i can tell you, the department of justice and the fbi have taken up all 15 of of those referrals and planned parenthood -- [applause] >> and planned parenthood and the body parts sellers are now under federal investigation. and that is something to celebrate. i have to tell you, too, the president was in nashville last week and we were so excited, there were thousands of people that stood in the horrible weather to get into the arena and to listen to him. they came to see him and they did that because they want to be there to show their support for this president and for the job that he is doing and the

job that his administration is doing and didn't you love listening to scott pruitt and hear what he is up to? we are so proud, so proud of him and you're going to hear from a lot of conservative leaders today that will talk a lot about what this administration and this conservative congress has done. just think about it, we've got a supreme court justice. we have over 40 federal judges that have been appointed to the district, the circuit, the appeals court. we have tax cuts, unemployment is at record lows. we have been able to get over 1600 regulations off the books. people never thought that that was going to happen s and we have things that are changing in washington. look at how the president is

taking up foreign affairs, he is standing up to that axis of evil. russia, china, iran, north korea, and he has moved our embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. [applause] and i am honored to be working with him on the things that tennesseans and americans want to see done. and what we know that people want to see is more tax cuts. tax cuts are working. i was at mule day in murray county, tennessee, it's a great tennessee tradition. we celebrate the mule. [laughter] >> fun event, and we have people from all over the state, certainly all over the country that are there. i had a gentleman that came up

to me and he said, marsha, i want you to vote for more tax cuts. i said absolutely. i'm looking forward to it. i said, you know, chairman brady's already said he's going to be rolling out tax cuts 2.0 and i'm going to be right there to vote for it and he said, good, let me tell you somethingment i used to have too much at the end of month of my money now i've got a little bit of money at the end of my month and i like that. i think you and i all know people that share this goal. they want that extra money in their pocket. we also know that the american people want someone who's going to stand with the president to build a wall. they are going to end the sanctuary city policy. [applause] they want -- they want elected representatives who are going to work to keep our kids safe. several years ago i took up the

fight against back page.com to get them shut down because they -- [applaus [applause] >> they are -- they exploit our children and women and they need to be shut down and the social media sites that enable sex trafficking, human trafficking, drug trafficking need to be shut down. [applause] this election, let me tell you, it is so important. awe you will have heard this, the democrats say they're going to have a big blue wave. and i want to tell you something, we have to make certain that blue wave goes crashing into the great red wall and that's -- [applause] and not only is that red wall going to be in tennessee, it's going to have

to be all across this country, in all of these competitive states. texas, arizona, pennsylvania, illinois, and looks like they had a little red wall building going on in california this week. he think we all sort of liked that one. [applause] and i will tell you this, too, the liberals think that 2016 was the end of of something. it was the start of something big because it is now that we are all going to stand up and make certain that we return to those first principles, that we return to those conservative values, that we drain the swamp is and that we become a government of the people, by the people and for the people because it is -- it is a government for us. now, i think it is so

significant that just a few days ago the president's first supreme court appointee helped give us a victory for religious freedom. when the court-- yes, it deserves to be applauded. when they sided with jack phillips and the masterpiece cake shop, and that is something that is such a victory for religious freedom. i applaud mr. phillips for standing up for his religious freedoms and for our religious freedom. for not being afraid of controversy and for getting in that fight and taking that case all the way to the supreme court. and after all, i think it is freedom of religion, we have to remember that is our first freedom. and it is worth the fight.

we have to remember, that is the reason that the pilgrims and the quakers and so many others came here, is to be able to exercise their religious freedom without penalty and without fear. without penalty and without fear. [applause] >> and it was the-- it was that spirit upon which our country was built. so, as we look at these rights that are given to us, these inalienable rights that are given to us by our creator, let's remember that in this year, in 2018, when we are at the beginning of taking this country back, taking our freedoms back, that this fight for you and for me and for our

children and our grandchildren, it is the worthy fight. thank you. god bless you. thank you for letting me be with you. thank you so much. [applause] ♪ >> you know, it is really deeply moving to be able to have our next speaker with us here today. he was just reminding me back stage that he was here a year ago and it was about a week before the shooting at the congressional baseball practice. that really riveted a nation and drove all of us to our

knees, to pray for the health and the life of our next speaker. and you know, before that ever happened to him, he was already a hero of our movement. he was one of the leading pro family legislators not only in the state of louisiana, but frankly, in the entire country. he and his then colleague in the louisiana legislature, our good friend tony perkins, helped to lead the fight for life, for religious freedoms, for marriage. he carried the marriage amendment through the louisiana legislature at that time and to oppose gambling expansion. he was elected to the house of representatives in 2008 where he quickly rose to leadership, becoming chairman of the republican study committee and one of the leading conservatives in congress, where he has been a tireless advocate for life, for

religious freedom, for marriage, and for faith. on june 14th of last year he was severely wounded when he was shot by a crazed far left activist at that congressional baseball practice and i'll let him tell the story, but it's frankly a miracle, not only that he didn't lose his life, but that many others didn't lose their lives that day. and the president, you may remember, and the first lady rushed to the hospital to be at his side as he hovered between life and death, and i know joanne and i were praying for him. i know many of you were praying for him, and because of those prayers, and the tremendous work of a skilled group of surgeons who saw him through multiple surgeries, he returned triumphantly to the floor of the house of representatives.

today he is the third highest ranking republican in the congress and we are so honored to welcome our dear friend, one of the greatest champions for our values in america today, congressman steve scalise. [applause] ♪ >> thank you. wow, thank you all so much. my dear friend, thank you for that warm introduction and for your love and friendship and for your prayers, to each and every one of you who's prayed for me during this last year and my family, i can't thank you enough because the power of

prayer is real. the miracles that god performs are real and i saw them, i saw them that day on the ball field. for many reasons i shouldn't be here if you look at what happened that day except for miracles and the grace of god. so i pray every day, i thank god every day and i thank you for all of those prayers. a lot to pray for and a lot to be thankful for. if you look at where we are right now, in changing the direction of our country. and my dear friend marsha blackburn just spoke, and won't she make a great senator from the great state of tennessee. [applause] marsha is one of those champions and we fought a lot of battles together. when i was chairman of the study committee and she was there with me and we lead the effort to expose planned parenthood, she led the committee to get the facts out

and alert the nation and how it uncovered and exposed people and really, i think, shocked so many people that this is something going on in our country. it's got to be stopped. do you know that because marsha went and exposed this during her campaign, she was actually banned from twitter. go back just a few months ago, when marsha put an ad up on twitter that just exposed the truth about planned parenthood, twitter took the ad down. they banned her. there's nothing better to alert the country just what's going on, if you think there might be a culture war in this country, the fact that the left and even people in organizations like twitter and facebook were literally trying to suppress conservative speech. people are seeing it now, because of social media, you sure didn't hear about that on the mainstream media, but because there are ways to get the message out. it's allowed conservative voices to be louder and magnify. it's one of the reasons that trump is president today in

doing a great job of standing up for our conservative values. you can look at neil gorsuch. i think that that opening on the supreme court, as deep of a lose as losing antonin scalia was, a constitutional giant on the supreme court, and people to interpret the constitution not trying to write their own law, the fact that that opening was there and the country knew, you're not only electing a president, but electing somebody who is going to help shape the court for another generation. nobody needs to ask hillary clinton what her list was going to be. and donald trump put out a list, he was criticized by some for doing it i thought that move, that move alone helped enough swing voters to make a decision to understand what that opening meant and they looked at donald trump's list and neil gorsuch was probably the best person on that list and there were other great people on that list and maybe we'll see a few more of them on the supreme court before he's

done, but in the meantime, again, hillary clinton never was asked by the media what her list would be because you didn't have to know. you knew what the philosophy would be of her pick and so what a contrast that's been, seeing scott pruitt here, who is a great friend and a champion for getting this economy back on track and restoring the rule of law in the regulatory state. the registry state under obama had been crushing this country. we were losing manufacturing job by the thousands every single day because of radical rules and regulation, nlb, alphabet soup of organizations that were wrecking the economy. donald trump, if you look what he promised on his campaign, he's carrying through on every one of his promises. how refreshing that is. [applause] >> so when i came back from

the hospital immediately we dove into tax reform, to be able to work with president trump on a bill to cut every single tax rate, from the highest rate to the lowest rate, eliminating the lowest rate, doubling the child tax credit, repealing, by the way, the house version of the death tax and a complete repeal of the johnson amendment, something that tries to stifle free speech in our churches, something we need to get back to. jody and i led the effort to put in play-- you can applaud that because we're not done fighting to repeal the johnson amendment. [applause] >> in fact, i've got a bill with jody, the free speech act, that would truly restore this whole idea that the irs can threaten to take away the tax exempt status of churches based on what they say at the pulpit and they don't fairly administrate that and we're going to repeal the johnson

amendment and we're going to keep working to do that. something else i want to talk to you about that's so critically important in this november's election and if you ever wondered why elections matter, i'm not going to say that this 2018 election is the most important in the history of our country because it's an important election, the most important election in the history of our country, really in our generation was two years ago in 2016, getting donald trump elected donald trump with majorities in the house and senate to truly allow us to save this great nation. and so, we've set out to do a number of things and this tax cut bill is incredible like getting our economy back on track and having working families, not according to nancy pelosi to have crumbs, but maybe to go on a vacation, to buy your first home. it's real success, it's real-- and by the way, i love the fact that nancy pelosi is reminding everybody she will run for speaker again if they get the majority because it's a reminder what's at stake in november, but she also said she would raise your taxes.

she wants to undo the tax cut bill that is working. any about it, we pass a bill that transforms our economy and gets people hired again and money in their pocket, and what is her answer, she should be applauding it, and donald trump got something right instead she wants to reverse it and joining with bernie sanders and radicals on the left. and it's important what the two different agendas are, we want to keep working with president trump. you know what happened? we pass add bill in the house to completely repeal obamacare and in that bill, it was a repeal and replace bill that got rid of obamacare and replaced it with reforms a marketplace you could buy what you want at affordable cost and you know what else we did, we complete defunded planned parenthood and we passed it in the house and we can't fully celebrate that and it didn't

become law, you know why? because three republicans voted no. by one vote, that bill failed. do you know that we've got the opportunity to flip at least five seats in the senate from democrat to republican, we've got to come back next year with a house republican majority, and increased numbers in the senate, and get that bill passed to president trump's desk to completely repeal obamacare and defund planned parenthood. so we've got a lot of work to do, but i want to thank you all for what you do to defend the values of this country. because if you look at what the faith and freedom coalition is about, it's to restore those values that made this country great. this is the greatest country in the history of the world, but it didn't happen by accident. this country was created in a deep belief that we're a nation founded under god. it was talked about by our founding fathers. there are people who have been trying to take god out of every element of our society for decades and you know what's at stake. you stand up and fight to defend it.

but we've got to remind people all the time that this country was founded under god. this whole idea of a separation between church and state. look, i want to read you a quote from thomas jefferson and you can go see this on the jefferson memorial. god who gave us life gave us liberties. can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of god? that was thomas jefferson. this is a nation founded under the belief of god. look, when i was shot, and i started crawling away from the gunfire and then all of my body gave out and i couldn't crawl anymore, the first thing i did was to pray. i prayed to god. god, there's nothing else i can do, i'm asking you for help and i put it in god's hands and i prayed for very specific things, the first one, i have a ten-year-old she's now 11-year-old daughter, and i prayed to god, i said god, please don't let madison have to walk up the aisle alone. the first thing that came to my

mind and then i prayed that i could see my family again. and i prayed for a number of other things and you know, god delivered on every one of those prayers. [applause] as said, it's a miracle not only that i'm here, but that the other dozen-plus members of congress on that ball field that day, that that shooter went out to execute, it would have been a massacre of unbelievable proportions, but it didn't happen for a lot of reasons, because the united states capitol police were there and did their job while shot themselves, continuing firing back to take the shooter down. so many other miracles that happened that you can just go and look and one you could say, wow, that's a coincidence and then the other, first shot was an at tent kelly of mississippi and hit a link in a chain link fence and you can go to the ball field and see that broken and that bullet went by his

head, by his ear, and because of that chain link fence, it's a miracle of god. it's important to know god's presence so you can point it out. we can talk about it, you know it, you talk to friends who maybe don't understand or have that same conviction and when you're explaining to them why it's so real, why the power of god's presence in prayer are so important, just remember those real life examples of miracles. we have seen them throughout our lives and i experienced them. one of the miracles, i was being taken to george washington hospital by ambulance 7:15 in the morning in virginia traffic. the ambulance have the lights on and they weren't moving. i was about to bleed out. i had, by the way, zero blood pressure when i arrived at the hospital most doctors tell you, you're done. they had to put 20 pints of blood in me, but if they would have driven me to george

washington hospital i would have never made it the driver, emt on the ambulance saw a helicopter coming and he said, that must be for him. let's turn around and go back to the ball field. they got out of the traffic, that wasn't moving, drove back to the ball field. the helicopter landed on the ball field. they switched me over, four minutes later i'm in the emergency room at medstar hospital and they save my life. it's a miracle. those are miracles of god. [applause] >> the reason i'm saying this, it's important for us to fight this battle. we know what's at stake in this great nation, but it's worth fighting to know those real world examples and to remind us every day why we're doing this, why we get up and go knock on doors in the hot summer in a state like missouri or in a state like west virginia or in a state like north dakota where we're trying to flip these important seats to take back this country one seat at a time, one vote at a time. i appreciate what you all have done to fight this battle and

what you're going to continue to do and for the leadership ralph reed and so many others committed to it take the fire and take the heat from the otherwise and we know why we're in it. we know why we're in this fight and we know we're winning this fight and thank god for what you do, each and every one of you. ... >> but i never heard the story about the ambulance and the helicopter. isn't god good that that

happened? wow. [applause] we're so glad he is there and we're so glad that our next speaker is here. he was with steve in the hospital. he is a dear friend of this organization and of our shared values. kevin mccarthy grew up in california. as a young man he started a small business. kevin's deli. to the as many of those as there are subways. kevin o's deli was a successful small business he started as a young man and learned by building his own business the importance of making a payroll and how hard it is for a small business or woman to go and risk their own capital to achieve their dream. he was able to work his way through california's state university, with those earnings from that small business. he late every went on to serve

on a congressional staff for a california member congress. in 2002 he was elected to the california assembly, elected almost immediately by his colleagues as the republican leader in the california assembly. he came to congress in 2007. he was an immediate impact player. became majority leader in 2014. we work with him and his staff on an ongoing basis. he was the one who along with the rest of the leadership repealed obamacare in the house of representatives. he was the one who helped get this tax cut done. he insured that the child tax credit doubling, the johnson amendment repeal were in that legislation. he looked out for our pro-life and our pro-family bills every single day, and in addition to that, he is all over the

country, every week, in congressional districts, all over the nation, helping to raise funds and energize the grassroots for this majority. when you look at this logo, road to majority, our next speaker is not only the majority leader, he is one of the reasons why we have this majority and i am privileged to welcome back to this conference, please welcome, congressman kevin mccarthy, the majority leader of the house of representatives. ♪ >> thanks very much. [applause] you know if anybody questions does god create miracles, just look at steve scalise, right? [applause] i don't know if you know, next week will be the one year to the day when steve was shot. i remember that day clearly.

you see steve and i have been friends for decades. steve and i were in young republicans together. he was the head of his state, louisiana. i was the national chair. we were a team then. so the day he decided to run for congress i was the first member to endorse him, the first member to write him a check. but that morning, when the security came and told me what had taken place my wife happened to be here. we called, we went to the hospital. the first reports were that, oh, he was just okay. when we got to the hospital, we saw the doctor's face, it was not the case. when steve told you he had no blood pressure, i don't know if he shared with you, 20 pints of blood. your body doesn't hold that much. we were waiting for jennifer, who, his wife and dear friend to come up. we sat together and we prayed. when jennifer came in, she looked at the doctor, the doctor

was laying out severity steve was, she said, sir, you don't foe my husband. he's tough, he has faith and he will walk again. he just proved it today, right? [applause] i want to thank you, i want to thank you for your work, for your effort, never giving up. what a difference one administration can make. today i want to talk about a few items. i want to express them to you, i want you to express them in other places as well. because we want to continue this momentum. we do not want america to fall back. ralph does a tremendous job. he has been a friend for decade, what he has been able to support, the sacrifice he makes going around the country as well. but you see, i didn't grow up in a family of republicans. i grew up in a family of democrats. i was the youngest but i was always a republican.

[applause] true. you see, i didn't go to the ivy league. i went to community college. that is the only college that would accept me. my father always installed in me to work. so i always worked after school. you're going to community college, what do you do on weekends? you visit friend away at college. i went down to san diego state to visit friend. i stopped at grocery store to cash a check. you can understand my financial well being. the day the lottery started in california, i didn't support it. i bought a ticket. you know what happened. i won lottery. true story, the is with juan of the first winners in california. the most you can win $5,000. if you're 20 years old, friday night, 1985, that is a lot of money. i took my folks to dinner. i could, my brother ordered

dessert to make the price higher. i gave brother and sister, $100. what i did with the rest of the money. i put it all in one stock. i believe in taking risks. the next semester i stop going to school. i went out to buy a franchise. nobody would sell me one. i started kevin o's deli. i was first to week, last to be paid. but i was pretty successful. i had enough money to pay my way through college, sold my business. opened up the paper, be a summer intern in washington, d.c., with my local congressman. didn't know him. thought he would be lucky to have me. [laughter]. i applied and he turned me down. you want to know the end of the story? i now sit in the seat i could not get an internship for. only in america. [applause] now let me quickly tell you what we've done with this new

administration. you know what an anniversary is today? we just hit one million new jobs since we passed the tax cut bill. [applause] you want to know another thing cnn won't tell you? in the last 49 years in america we have only been under 4% unemployment for seven months. seven months out of 49 years. but you know the last two months, april and may, are two of those seven years. [applause] do you know 48 out of 50 states have lowered their electrical bills because of the tax cut? and one company makes sure there is 1.2 million employees have longer maternity leave. we should be proud of what we achieved. lowering taxes, letting people keep more of what they earn, makes a family only strongers, that is what the focus is on. the other things we've been able to achieve, the judges.

i was sad when i saw scalia pass away but what about gorsuch. right? [applause] if you wonder if it has made a difference, ask jack phillips the christian baker vindicated by the supreme court earlier this week. [applause] i thought the supreme court spoke loud and clear and it wasn't a 5-4 decision. listen to with justice gorsuch said. he put it best in the concerning opinion, the constitution he wrote, protects to the just popular religious exercises from the condemn shun of the civil authorities, it protects them all. that is from the supreme court. so when i look back, that was a smart move. but you know what? we've appointed more judges. we need more. that belief in the constitution, not want somebody who will reinterpret the constitution.

[applause] now steve and i entire congress work very closely together but you know what i'm really proud of? this is the most pro-life congress we have ever had. [applause] and with this trump administration it is only gotten stronger. as majority leader i believe in the mission of insuring pro-life legislation gets to the floor. already we have passed the 20-week abortion ban and a bill to protect the survivors of abortion. just last month the department of health and human services announced a proposal to strip title 10 funding from groups like planned parenthood. if they don't sever the abortion facilities from their family planning facilities. that is a change. [applause] did you know hhs also did? i was there that day. they opened an office of civil rights to go, and also religious

freedoms. and now they're investigating what california has done in going against the weldon amendment, to make sure taxpayer dollars are not spent and mandated. you know what i'm most concerned about, what i see recently, the sensorship of conservative thought. i don't know if you watched what happened recently. if you google california republican party, you know what they said? that we were naziism. not the party of reagan, not the party of lincoln, but our ideology was naziism. i did not sit back. we feed to stop the bias. just a week before i'm talking to donald trump, jr. if you had searched his name on instagram, it gave you a warning, it was harmful, could even cause death this site you you were searching. just look what amazon has done. if you're an amazon shopper, you

could go on your own and pick is amazon smart where you hit and give your, they will give charity money. they have all the charities listed up. alliance for defending freedom, the individuals that argued and fought for jack phillips, they got kicked off, to give money to. because amazon thought they weren't a non-profit and their views were wrong. we need to stand up and stop people from competing against the idea that conservative view can not be put for the. we have a first amendment. we have a right to speak it. and anytime they try to stop it we need to speak a little louder. [applause] my time is up, there is so much more to talk about. but i want to leave you with this. you know when certain things happen in your life and they're very compelling. almost like it happens in slow motion at that moment, i have

had five of those moments. i can tell you the day i met my wife. it was mrs. flynn's biology class. it was love at first sight, and 12 years later, she felt the same way. [laughter] the moment our children were born. the moment i accepted christ. and the moment i became a republican. they weren't all in the same day but they were days that defined my life. you see i was in junior high, i watched ronald reagan stand on a podium and say no pastels, fly bold colors, go to the shiny city on the hill. at same time, current president, jimmy carter said put sweater on, best days were behind me. i knew what that meant, that was america. i knew what came from the light t was about freedom and liberty.

go beyond maine and california. inspire shipyard workers of poland to rise up. i watched during the eight years of obama that light got dimmed. but in that last election, we bound together, we climbed that mountain and we started to recharge that light. let's make sure that in this next election that that light does not get dimmed. that is only burns brighter. thank you, and god bless. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome talk show host and author, michael medved. ♪

>> kevin pick cart think. with a great -- pick cart think. what a great job he did. we heard about faith and freedom, all the big victories run recently. i want to talk briefly about a challenge we have in keeping those victories going, building on them, expanding them, making them permanent for the american people. and in that regard, i was thrilled to be here in washington at a time that a giant red wave overtaken the nation's capitol, right? [applause] by the way, the red with wave i'm talking about has nothing to do with politics. it has to do with the washington capitals. do you know that there were -- [applause] there were 200,000 people, minimum in the streets last night, in the middle of the night. they were celebrating and i was talking to some people here in washington. people saying this is the

greatest day of my life. the capital, i don't even care about hockey. i have got to admit, it is canadian game right? you talk about collusion. the star for the for the capitals is named alex ovechkin. he is russian. this is not big news. it's real. [laughter] 74% of the washington capitals are foreign-born. it doesn't matter. because this is a great victory and people feel part of it and we americans, we love our sports. i mentioned that i don't care about hockey. i care a great deal about baseball and i feel better when my seattle mariners actually win and i don't even know yet because i've been here about what happened last night against tampa bay. people care about sports and they love sports in america. here is my question for you. what can we do as conservatives to reach at that 30% of americans who never vote, who

never vote and don't care about politics but a lot of them care deeply about the seattle mariners or the washington capitals, atlanta braves or some of the great sports teams we have, maybe even the philadelphia eagles world champions. maybe, as long as they continue not to kneel, right? all right. so here is the deal. think about it. ways it about sports that engages people so much that we can learn from engaging people in politics which we know to be even more important than sports. let pemention three things. there are three things about sports that people realize, that they don't realize about politics. they don't feel about politics. one is, with sports you don't demonize your opponents. number two, is that with sports

there is a sense that in are rules and it's fair. cheating is not allowed. at least not supposed to be. number three is with sports there is a feeling of personal involvement. let me talk about each of these very, very quickly. because they're important. when it comes to this idea that with sports you don't demonize the opponents, you don't win over the las vegas golden knights, who even knew there was a las vegas golden knights in hockey, oh, these guys are the worst people ever. they're low-lives, cheaters, some of them probably are, you know what? you don't say that. when you engage in sporting event, you appeal to the crowd more if both sides are sympathetic. one of the problems with our politics right now, certainly a huge problem for liberals, they want everything as the worst. it is not enough they disagree with president trump, he is the worst human being, and the

worst, everyone in the administration is corrupt and they're all horrible. this of course depresses people from being interested in politics. we have had our most participatory elections when there have been two candidates for president, for instance, who both appealed to people and struck people as significant individuals. so let us avoid the demonization of opponents. the second point is the idea of playing by rules. part of the difficulty with politics right now you can't even get a straight story. the people who are covering the story are cheerleaders for one side or another. can you imagine if the only source of sports information you got was utterly bigoted. the yankees lost last night but they surely played better and they deserved to win. i mean, this is, this is one of the things that we need to focus on in our politics is a better

source of fair information and being more transparent about avoiding the cheating and playing by rules. and the third point is the point of personal involvement. there are lots of people last night who were saying, i was responsible for the capitals winning this great, great victory. okay, how was i responsible? because i wore the same t-shirt or i went to the same restaurant. there was some guy who said i know i did it, whenever i would bring my car in to get looked at, capitals one. i did it last night. what are people showing sear with this sense of personal involvement? what they're showing they believe in some higher power, controlling things. and when you think about dealing with sports, don't you feel this is the gods plural, or is it a god thing. let us have the same sense of politics. let us support organizations like faith and freedom that get

people involved, that give people a personal stake. once you go to personal stake, if you go to a rally, or you give a campaign contribution or you get involved in a organization like this, yes you are part of this, it is not just a win for some candidate far away. it is a win for you. that is what we need, is victories for america and victories for the conservative cause, and with that in mind, we can go forward and maybe, maybe, have people as happy as they should be, for victories for our elected representatives, as they are for our sports heroes. because you know what? it is even more noble for people to work in public service. rett's give people the credit they deserve, the support they deserve, with a personal involvement that can energize this country. god bless faith and freedom and ralph reed and all the great work being done. let's go out with an election coming up and win this one, for

the gipper. thanks very, very much. [applause] ♪ >> okay. our next speaker which is going to be in an interview format is one of our favorites. i know you see her on television virtually every day. frankly she takes the slings and arrows of the left-wing media, as well as better than anybody that we have ever seen. she grew up in new jersey, of irish and italian descent in a strong roman catholic family, where she learned the values of fidelity to faith and family and innocent human life that have

carried her throughout her life and career. she worked for eight summers on a blueberry farm and she won the world championship blueberry packing competition. [laughter] when she was 20 years old. and when the original count showed that someone else had won, kellyanne demand ad recount. [laughter]. she was tough then. she got a bachelor of arts from trinity college, a law tee agree from george town university. in 1995 she founded polling company which became one of the most successful and most influential public opinion survey companies in the country, particularly in identifying messages to women consumers and women voters. the her clients included some of the leading corporations and

leading political figures in our country including vice president dan quayle at that time, jack kemp, speaker newt gingrich and a congressman who you might have heard of named mike pence, who is now vice president. she is without question one of the smartest and the best pollsters in political strategists in our country in the last 25 years. in 2016, working for our current president she accomplished something never achieved in american history. she became the first woman to successfully manage a winning presidential campaign. [cheers and applause] she is today the counselor to the president and i know because i've seen it first-hand that she not only has the president's ear, she has his respect and his affection, and she has the respect and affection of

millions of americans. please welcome, the counselor to the president, kellyanne conway. [cheering] ♪ >> good morning. ralph, that is over the top. thanks, mom, for writing the introduction. >> kellyanne, we watch you almost every morning it seems on television. i wasn't even going to ask this question, so i hope i don't get in trouble for asking it, because all of this had to be cleared but what that has been like for you? you've been in the public domain, you know. you run bill maher back in the day and other shows i remember, but now to be in that line of fire, you know, and defending this president every single day, you do such a great job, but,

they seem to really go after you, you handle it so well. talk a little bit about that. >> i appreciate that, ralph. first of all, thank you for welcoming me back to faith and freedom. thank you all for being here and for everything you do for this great nation we all call home and we love so very deeply every single day of your lives. i really appreciate you. in part wanted to comment on and tell thank you on behalf of all of us at the white house. so in terms of television appearances, or radio appearances, not something i expected to do when i agreed to come into the white house. i specifically did not want to be press secretary or comes director or spokeswoman. i wanted to really work on policy, and the president to his enormous credit agreed with that. sheer volume and velocity alone way he works, coupled with the very unfair and ubiquitous mistreatment of him personally

and misunderstanding of his policies as they are going forward demands a array of different people out there, defending, using ralph's world and amplifying what the president is doing for the country. my main complaint has always been the media don't cover issues that necessarily affect americans, and that americans tell the media pollsters, they actually want to hear. that is the irony. if you look at polling from the major media outlets, and you see the answers among americans, as what they say is most important to them, what they want the president and congress to focus on most, it does not match whatsoever with what said outlets cover on the television news or in print in the paper. it is so disproportionate. the russian investigation, for example, in one of the most recent cnn polls is down on the list as compared to the economy

or health care or immigration and the like and so that's always a great irony. i go and i only talk about things i know about and i think everybody should follow suit perhaps because there are other experts who are better voices for the president on an array of issues. but i think it helps to know the president and the way he makes decisions, and to very much believe in the agenda that got him elected. to very much deeply respect president trump, vice president pence, their which was, their families, our cabinet and men and women in uniform. if i can amplify a few messages that help this country remain safer, more prosperous, our government more accountable. i'm happy to do it. i am much more calm and confident than it seems many people who are asking the questions, i won't name them. i don't know what has got everybody so miserable to be honest with you.

>> i think we know. >> yes, we do know. we do know they are so miserable but, i don't think that it is our job to defend so much as to explain and educate and inform, so much as it is the media's job to attack. i think that, it's perfectly fine, it is within their right to be skeptical or to hold the government accountable or to ask questions but why the same question 10 times? and why the scowl on the face? and why would have called from day one the presumptive negativity? always so presumptively negative. then ignoring facts and figures that actually matter to americans. i will give you a couple quick examples, just this month. only june 8th, just this month, the jobs numbers. for the 7th time, ralph, since 1970, think about that, 48 years times 12 months, let's say 11 months and six months this year, five months this year,

think about that, think about how many thousands of data reports we're talking about, for the 7th time only, we had unemployment below 4%. unemployment is record low. that is incredible. [applause] if you just heard of that for the first time, consumers of news, all activists all, therein lies my point. and part of the challenge. >> you're saying that never happened before? >> only happened seven times since 1970. 48 years, only happened seven times. the rest you know b the lowest unemployment numbers ever african-americans and hispanics. women in 18 or 19 years. lower among teens. we have now 6.7 million available jobs in this country, ralph. that exceeds number of people say they looking for a job. that griffs you more job security and job availability. you're not stuck where you are. [applause] this is a president that invested in work place development, in skills education

and training. what he and i used to call vocational educational training. where i grew up very definitely majority when i graduated high school did not go to college at that time. they do now. but they graduated with a skills certificate and high school degree. went to work next day as mechanic, hairdresser, carpenter, welder, they supported themselves and their families the rest of their lives. this is a president respected in the economy and we're also being respected on the world stage. he is doing what he promised to do, take issues that were mired in low single digits, if not as terrific, lower than 1% in the polls, ralph, religious liberty, like trade, like illegal immigration, catapult them up into our consciousness and agenda in a way he thinks is more fair, to americans, to american interests and american workers. so i'm quite comfortable explaining all the good that is going on. i think it took me a little bit

after while to understand that with the white house behind you, you're speaking on behalf of america to america and i don't say, i don't return the snark and bark in kind. perhaps one day i will. you will have to read the book. but for now, i will just keep my counsel and smile through it all. i also find smiling through it is very disarming for the other side. hardly ever smiling. i'm not sure if some people even have teeth. i haven't seen them in a while. [laughter] [applause] >> well, kellyanne, i know i speak not only for our 1.7 million members -- >> incredible. >> but for millions of others around the country, you make us proud every single day when you go out there and represent this president. >> thank you. >> and this administration. [applause] >> thank you, ralph, right back at you. i feel like all 1.7 million were

knocking on doors in 2016. will again this year and will again in 2020. that is the key, you will not read those stories everywhere. you will not hear the data very often but we know it matters. it certainly mattered in the last presidential election because we had a fraction of the personnel and a fraction of the budget. but we had grassroots supporters. we had people who may not become household names or screaming on the nightly news or giving quotes to the paper, boy they were there. they were there on election day, but they were there before election day, really priming the pump. knocking on the doors and showing the difference between two major candidates and their philosophies. we have two greatest assets which there is no substitute. donald j. trump, michael r. pence, two greatest assets getting out there with the people that matter so much. the president makes himself a accessible, on the south lawn leaving for g7 in canada,

followed by historic summit in singapore with the current leader of north korea. day after day, again the sheer volume and velocity the way the president works is really stunning, but, when he came to washington, he came owing nobody anything. and that is quite dip. they say he is not a typical politician or disruptor. all that is true but think for a moment what that really means this is a president who says even when he was in washington for business purposes he really rarely, if ever spent the night. he didn't have this connection to the different organizations and organs and individuals that are washington, and some people criticized that as lack of familiarity with the system. i think most americans appreciate it as not being beholden to a system that has trillions of dollars in deficits and -- [applause] and i know you want to get a couple questions. let me say this is a president also tends to keep promises of

many presidents. when you look at something like right to try, which the president passed, he signed into law last week, that is something other presidents said they wanted to do, wanted to try to do. when you look at this president, keeping promise of four or five perhaps presidents, those presidents promised on day one, week one, when i get there if you elect me i will move the u.s. and embassy to jerusalem. i will recognize jerusalem as capital of israel. only one president got it done. that is very disarming. would not have had that, would not have had this with the typical politician. he thinks like a business anma. i appreciate, there would be no point me being there literally, if he wasn't somebody who respected, sought out, listened to the council of a diverse group of people in the white house, different viewpoints, different backgrounds. in the end he makes the decision. he is the one that got elected. >> you talk about the issues the

president has elevated. one i know is very important to you, very important to us. that is the issue of life. he is the first president to address a march for life by video hookup. the vice president is the first vice president to address the march for life in person. the president just announced that his department of health and human services was going to promulgate regulations that would prevent the use of taxpayer funds in the title x family planning program to be used to perform abortion. you're is somebody a deeply committed pro-lifer. you came out of this movement. so could you talk a little bit about, i think it may have surprised some people because some were skeptical of the president's views on this. and there's an argument that can be made, this is the most pro-life president we've ever had. >> yes. >> so could you talk about how

that goes inside the counsels of the administration and his leadership? >> ralph, no question, as vice president said, you have said, many have noted, even his critics he is the on track to be the most pro-life president in american history, and part of it is because he kept promises he made. candidate trump could not have been more explicit on the campaign trail. he said in interviews. he said during debates and other forums, that he would if elected, he would, defund planned parenthood, take its money away from performing abortions under title 10 and if they choose to no longer perform abortions, if they choose to separate the physical facilities, then that may be a different matter but he also made good on the commitment to elevate and nominate judges like neil gorsuch to the supreme court but like 21 other u.s. circuit court judges, 21 circuit court u.s. judges through the

president's nomination and leadership of leader mcconnell and a bitterly divided senate getting through those 21 u.s. second quarter court judges, 1/8 of the judiciary right now is donald trump nominee. that we've been here only 16 months. that is incredible thing and lasting legacy i, long after he leaves the presidency six 1/2 years from now. you see -- [applause] just saying. you see a long, you will see a long legacy of pro-lifers. also days on the job. reinstating mexico city policy went a little further and directed secretary of state at that time, mr. tillerson do it with ngos. he of course has, he has spoken like a pro-lifer, meaning he tells everybody i'm for the sanctity of life.

addressing the march for life was a very important moment. it is one of these things, it is a great example, ralph of something i say often in the job as counselor to the president. i literally walk around saying, why didn't anybody do that before? it strikes me as brand new information. i have to go back and look. can that be possibly be true, i scour for myself, do my own independent research. how can that be true? we have certainly great pro-life presidents in the fast. what were they afraid of? address blocks away or through a video okay up? so it took, i want the record to reflect it took a manhattan male billionaire for whom most of his adult life was pro-choice to become the most pro-life president in american history. i think these calls are fairly easy for him had, when he saw the actual data, not just screaming talking heads. the number of qualified women's health centers in this country for outnumbers the number of planned parenthood facilities in

a place like maine, just saying, in a place like maine -- >> a particular reason? >> planned parenthood, hypothetically speaking, you have four planned parenthood facility notice state. they're pretty much in the southern part of the state. you have hundreds of others of, hundreds and hundreds of qualified women's health centers. so there it is not even close. and that, that is a great example of how the money will be given to these qualified women's health centers which do provide women's health centers, health services but don't perform abortions. this president i at this on october 19th, 2016, really put away his opponent, that woman who lost the election whose name i never say anymore. applause play. lest i be accused of saying it anymore. he said, remember, he took the pro-life messaging of 20 some

years, that some of us worked on, ralph, nobody, even the pose pro-life candidates never really said quite that way, put it in his own words, basically said you're the extreme one. you would rib a baby out of its mother's womb hour before it is born. the country went ooh. i thought that was terrific. those were his words. he said it against since. he believes should call it out how extreme that is. i don't know what you're apologizing for. [applause] i don't know what you're apologizing for when you are trying to protect unborn life and support that life after it's born as well. and the other side is defending sex election abortions, they're defending late-term abortions, they're defending taxpayer abortions, defending abortions after you detect a heart beat. after half stage of pregnancy when northern partisan doctors and scientists saying a baby can feel pain in the womb.

happy measurements. success in utero surgeries, success of helping the baby survive. i want to give a shoutout first lady also. our incredible, amazing, first lady, mrs. melania trump. [applause] one of the many issues that she is tackling as part of her be best initiatives, help neonatal absent syndrome babies. we have roughly 100 newborns brought into this world every day in this country struggling for their first breath. they're born struggling for first breath. already chemically dependent on open oweds, heroin, meth, something else. she has taken this as one of her major issues. i traveled with her. we all listened to her. she, i believe, that she will help increase awareness and increase action, inspire action on such an important issue. >> kellyanne, i just want to tell you how grateful we are to you for your service to this

president and to this cause of this country. >> thank you. >> you were required because of the, you know the rules that involved government service, you had to sell your company. you had to relocate your family. you have come under personal attack for defending the administration and i, i want you to know, that we pray for you and your husband and your children. >> thank you. >> on a daily basis. >> that's what we need, thank you. >> i know you feel it. we're proud of you and thank you for all your -- >> that's what we all need. thank you, god bless you. >> god bless you. we love you. i mean it. [applause] ♪ >> don't you love the fact that

she has oval office walk-in privileges and her office is right down the hall from the president? we are so honored to welcome back our next speaker. mitch mcconnell began his political career as a county commissioner in jefferson county, which is louisville, kentucky. in 1984 he defeated an incumbent democratic senator and became the first republican to win a statewide race in the state of kentucky since 1968. he has been reelected five times since then. he is i believe, unless i'm corrected, the longest-serving u.s. senator in the history of kentucky. throughout his career he has stood for your first amendment rights to free speech. he is compiled a 100% pro-life voting record. in 2014 he was elected by his colleagues to be majority leader of the u.s. senate. and in many proud moments, in a

very distinguished career, there is no question, in my mind, that the proudest moment, not only of this majority leader but maybe any majority leader, was within an hour, that we learned the news of antonin scalia's passing, he announced that we were not going to vote on filling that vacancy until we had a new president and held the 2016 presidential election. [applause] and it was because of his leadership that that vacancy was there for president trump to fill. he filled it with neil gorsuch. our next speaker helped steer that nomination through the u.s. senate. and because he took the stand he took, and president trump led by appointing gorsuch, we won a major case this week on religious freedom in the colorado baker case, this week.

[applause] he helped shepherd through the tax cuts that passed the senate late last year that has gotten this economy exploding and driven unemployment down to a level we haven't seen in 44 years. he is a dear friend of this organization, and the pro-family and pro-life cause. please welcome, the majority leader of the united states senate, mitch mcconnell. [applause] ♪ >> well, good morning, everyone. >> good morning. >> yeah. i want to thank ralph for that excellent introduction. he has been a great friend of mine for a very, very long time. i also want to thank tim head for all of his excellent work

week in, week out. this is quite a opportunity we've been given by the american people, a great opportunity. you know only been a few times in the last hundred years where republicans have had the president, the house and the senate. only about 20 years out of the last 100. so we've tried to maximize this opportunity. i want to thank you all for standing with us throughout the obama years. it wasn't much fun, was it. [laughter] we worked to block all the bad things we could and to keep the embers, the emmers about of conservative alive. we stood together after republicans won the senate majority and began putting the brakes on the obama agenda. we were together again last year, just after president trump and our unified republican

government arrived in washington. we were just starting to translate our conservative principles into policy. so it is always great to be with all of you because i know you share our views. and are excited about what we're trying to achieve for the country. it is a lot of fun when you have as much good news to report as we do. in my view the last 16 months have been the single-best period for conservative values since i came to washington as ralph indicated back in 1985. this is not hyperbole. [applause] this is not spin. this is not hyperbole. this is a fact. the unemployment rate in the u.s. just hit an 18-year low. american job openings now outnumber the jobless. here is my favorite. from "the new york times," "the new york times" of all

place, i know you all read the "times" every day, right? [laughter]. here is the headline from the times, we ran out of words to describe how good the jobs numbers are. in the "times." mainstream media is praising the economy under an all republican government, you know something is serious is happening, believe me, they didn't want to write that headline. not exactly surprising news that good things happen when we get washington, d.c., out of the way and unleash more of american free enterprise. just before the 2016 election 74%, 74% of u.s. manufacturers said an unfavorable business climate due to taxes and regulation was the chief obstacle, the chief obstacle to their business. today, only 19% say that. 19%. manufacturer order backlogs are

longer than they have been since 2:00. percentage of businesses reporting strong earnings has it been this high in 45 years. and for the first -- [applause] and for the first time in recent memory, more job openings in the united states than people looking for work. so the national numbers are absolutely outstanding. and in particular we're seeing prosperity returning to communities that obama era policies left behind. what progress there was during the obama years was largely in big cities. now misses in rural and small town areas dustings off the help-wanted signs. midwest manufacturers are investing millions in new facilities. so what is making all this happen? certainly not politicians. the government doesn't create prosperity. but policy can affect whether the wind is in the face of job

creators or at their backs. so republicans are getting washington out of the way so american workers and job creators can build an economy that is the envy, literally of the entire world. take our once in a generation tax reform. we have waited 30 years for this. we rewrote the tax code to let middle-class families and small businesses keep more of their earnings. we gave american workers and job creators a leg up to compete and win on the world stage. it has led major employers to announce billions of dollars in u.s. investments, create thousands of new jobs, grant new races, bonuses, benefits to millions of employees. caused the missouri construction company to invest half a million dollars into equipment. given a working family in west virginia more room in the budget to save for their kids catholic school tuition. and an expanded 529 plan to do

so. in addition, to tax reform, congress and the president are slashing through a forest of obama-era red tape. from 2009 to 2016 businesses spent every day looking over their shoulder. many hesitated to invest, expand and hire. they never knew what new regulation or tax hike might be coming next. well today, is a new day. now americans have a government that rejects the tired old left-wing policies of envy and division, a government that knows that capitalism actually works. that we need to have thriving businesses to hire american workers and that is just, my friends, what is happening more and more. so let's be sure we keep sight of why all this matters. the real impact of a strong economy is not, not, just that good numbers go up and bad statistics go down. at its core our economy is a

collection of human stories, the americans who are coming back into the workforce, getting their first job, finally earning pay raises are not just statistics. they're men and women who are hungry for the dignity comes with working hard, earning their own way and supporting their family. they don't want stagnation and dependence on the government. they want independence, dignity, and yes, earned success. and that is exactly what our conservative policies are helping to deliver. now people often ask me, like to be the majority leader of the senate? the best answer i've been able to come up with is that it is a little bit like being a groundskeeper at a cemetery. [laughter]. everybody's under but nobody's listening. [laughter] [applause] so what is the advantage?

well the even though i have one vote out of 100 like everybody else, the majority leader gets to set the agenda. down of doesn't always garrity the outcome, but gets to died what we're going to do. deciding what will be voted on and occasionally, more importantly, deciding what you're not going to do. ralph mentioned it the single most consequential decision i made in my entire political career not let barack obama fill that scalia vacancy on the way out the door. [applause] and the president didn't blow

the opportunity. neil gorsuch was a superb choice. and we cemented that seat for a very long time. now, instead, we have somebody in that seat who is a worthy successor to the intellectual godfather of what most of us believe a judge ought to be, and that is someone who interprets the law as its written, or as the constitution dictates. rather than how you want it to come out. my favorite saying from justice scalia was, you're not a very good judge if you're not occasionally disappointed in the outcome you reach. because it was dictated by the law. by the law. if you want to run, you want to make policy, run for office.

simple, declaratory point. so, admirers of justice scalia are all over the country now. we've been seeing them as the president sends us, circuit judges, sends up circuit judges that we've been confirming in record numbers. so let me just give you a statistic. since the creation of the modern circuit court system that is one step below the supreme court, that modern circuit court system was set up in 1891, no president, since 1891 has had more circuit judges confirmed than donald trump last year. no president. [applause] now we're up to 21 and let me put the 21 figure in context. 21 represents 1/8, 1/8 of the

circuit judges in america have been appointed by donald trump and confirmed by this senate in a year-and-a-half. we are transforming the court system of this country. [applause] now we have a pretty slim majority in the senate 51-4 had 9, and as most of you know senator mccain has not been there since december. so it is 50-49. one of the biggest thing i have to check on each day is the attendance. anybody feeling okay? anybody have to go to a wedding or funeral? remember the old maalox commercials, maalox moments? i had a few of those. well the democrats set the precedence back in 2013 so now we're using harry reid's tool box to keep democrats from defeating president trump's qualified nominees. by that they lowered the threshold to confirm judges to a

simple majority. it has been a huge advantage for us. and of all the things we're doing, the things that will have the longest impact on the country are the court systems and these men and women that the president has been sending up, and we've been confirming are not very old either. late 40s, early 50s. chances they will be on there for a very long time. most cases don't reach the supreme court. so the circuit courts are really where most complex cases end. so of all of the things we're doing, my favorite, because i think it will have the longest impact, is what we're doing working with the president to change the court system. all right. all of you of course by helping all of us have helped make that happen.

you fought right alongside us and will see the results of what i was just talking about for a generation and beyond. of course president obama's judicial philosophy isn't the only part of his legacy we're quickly reversing. congress and the president repealed obamacare absurd individual mandate tax. we repealed its board of bureaucrats that was going to ration our health care and stopped several more obamacare taxes from taking effect at all. we also took a bite out of dodd-frank. democrats enforced main street banks to comply with overcomely indicated wall street rules. we cut the regulations so local lenders can bet back to serving middle class families and small businesses. and congress and the president have erased the limits on defense spending that hurt military readiness. we ended the obama era atrophy of our national defense and delivered the largest, my friends, the largest year on year increase in armed forces in

15 years. [applause] secretary mattis and our commanders have -- out of all these additional resources to protect the homeland, project power where needed and confront those who wish us harm. on issue of life, one of our record-setting regulatory rollbacks was a rule that had forced states to issue grants to planned parenthood. now that rule is in the wastebasket. [applause] and the trump administration is making big changes to title 10 that can strip away of tens of millions of their taxpayer funding every year, but in each of these areas the fight is far from over. we have more work to do to restore our values and deliver results. for the american people. our proposal to prohibit abortions, capable unborn

children of 20 weeks still fallen short of the 60 votes it needs in the senate. folks, i need more reinforcements. send them to us in november. if we get the reinforcements, the president and i are eager to make this law. we won't stop fighting until the laws respect the right of every human being to live, be free, pursue their happiness. [applause] these rights come from god, not from government. government can not take them away. [applause] we need to pass appropriations that fund priorities like infrastructure and national defense and will fight to confirm more of the president's completely qualified nominees to the judiciary and executive program. they decided more fun to be the

resistance. than to do their job and help us govern the country. they're pulling out every trick in the book. . . for lower-level judges and then not a single senator voted against any of them. so our democratic colleagues are trying to run out the clock. i'm not going to let them succeed. so i bet you heard what i'm about to tell you. i announced because of their

obstruction i'm canceling the august recess and keeping the senate writer on the job where we belong. -- right here. we will confirm more nominees. we'll keep delivering on an agenda that's already done so much to make america stronger, safer, and more prosperous. this obstruction is just a tiny taste of what democrats would do to our conservative agenda and to the president's agenda if they were to recapture the senate. one of the reasons i look forward to this congress every year is its name, wrote to majority.

we have walked this road together. we've gone from a minority point defense to majority that is driving the ball down the field into the end zone. and from the economy to the course to our armed forces will begin to see results. and i want to touch on just one other thing that's worth remembering. 20 years ago congress passed a law requiring the embassy in israel to be moved to jerusalem, and every president since then of both parties waive the law. donald trump moved to the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem, and we should thank him for that. it is long overdue. [applause] now, i've outlined what we've accomplished in 16 months. imagine what more we will do if we keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep our eye on the long game.

so thank you. thanks for all you've done, and continue to do. let's just keep it up together. thank you, my friends. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ [laughing] i bet there's going to be an expanded caucus in the ascendant come next january to give him more votes in order to pass more good legislation. we didn't plan it this way. it's just serendipitous but the next speaker is his wife, and also a dear friend of this

organization. i i believe one of the finest public servants in america today. her family fled china in 1949 after the communist takeover of that country. she was born in free china, taiwan, and came to the united states when she was only eight years old. she graduated with honors as an undergrad and received an mba from harvard university. by the way, an addition to that, she has 36 honorary degrees. she served our country and is so devoted to public service over such a distinguished career, heading up the federal maritime service under george bush 41, serving in the reagan administration, heading the peace corps under president bush 41, the first asian american to ever had those positions.

she was secretary of labor under bush 43, and served in that post on within anyone since frances perkins in the 1930s and '40s. in that capacity she protected workers' rights including their free speech and free association rights picture expanded job opportunities for all americans and dramatically improved workers safety. president trump nominated her and she was confirmed as secretary of transportation last year where she worked to improve america's infrastructure and is working hard to create job opportunities and modernize america's roads, bridges, highways and airports. she has served on numerous boards of u.s. corporations and nonprofits. and she believes deeply in the bow is a faith and freedom that we seek to advance, i think very highly of our previous speaker, but i think she is the better

half and i i don't think he wod disagree. please welcome the secretary of transportation, elaine chao. [applause] ♪ >> thank you. thank thank you, ralph. we want to thank you for your leadership over the years for safe and freedom. so let's give ralph a tremendous round of applause. [applause] >> it's a a great pleasure to e here today with friends who share a vision for our country that protects and promotes safe, freedom, family and opportunity. d7 that touchstones of my life and in my career. these are the values that

motivated my parents to move their family across the world to america when, as ralph mentioned, i was eight years old. faith, freedom and opportunity are not abstract concepts for those who have experienced life without them. faith enabled my family to face the challenges of being in a new land, learning a new language, and a new culture with optimism, hope, and confidence. when we arrived in america we didn't know anybody. it was our local church that welcomed us, gave us comfort, and advice in how to maneuver through everyday life. really simple things such as where to go to find a grocery store, where to go to find a basic necessities of life.

fellow church members also helped us to learn about american traditions and customs. we learned about barbecues, picnics, and the thrill of discovery that there was a wonderful place called the library that let us borrow books for free. and, of course, on sundays, sundays were devoted to gather with fellow congregants in worship. faith and opportunity allowed my parents to build a business and put six daughters through college. [applause] my sisters and i grew up so grateful for the opportunities that this country gave our family, and we are dedicated to contributing to this country in return. this administration is keeping

the faith with the american people by working hard to increase opportunities for all. and among the most notable achievement so far was the presidents success in working with congress to pass meaningful tax reform. you should clap. [applause] because it was based on a very basic fundamental precept, that if you want to empower the people rather than the government, let the people keep more of the money that they earn. american families received $3.2 trillion and gross tax cuts and saw the child tax credit double. this action by president trump and this congress yielded immediate positive results for the economy and for middle-class americans. this administration is also

diligently addressing the problem of unnecessary and overly burdensome regulations that do real economic harms. last year the big news if you recall was the administrations two-for-one regulatory mandate, for every new regulation, every one new regulation, departments across the government were supposed to eliminate to old ones. while in 2018, the department of transportation is well on its way to achieving a six to one ratio. [applause] we basically eliminate six old regulations for every new one. and under the previous administration the department of transportation increased the regulatory cost on job creators by an average of nearly $3 billion a year.

last year under president trump the department reduced regulatory costs by $312 million alone just in our department. [applause] so the department of transportation is on track to reduce regulatory costs by an additional $500 million or more in 2018. and, in fact, it looks like they were going to surpass the billion dollars in net cost savings this year. [applause] and that is why the institute has been the department of transportation number one in the administration for decreasing regulatory burdens. and american action forum reese announced the department of transportation have already initiated over 100 giving up her

actions, the most of any cabinet or agency in the government by far. [applause] consequently it is no coincidence that after a sluggish eight years, america's economy is finally on a trajectory of strong economic growth. that means more prosperity and more jobs for more americans. consumer confidence has hit a 17 year high. 3 million new jobs have been created in the last you alone, and in may 2018 unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, the lowest in almost 50 years. [applause] and this includes 304,000 new manufacturing jobs, , 337,000 nw construction jobs. gallup reports a record 67% of americans believe that now is a great time to find a quality

job. and, in fact, today there are more job openings than the are unemployed americans. something that is never before occurred as long as these statistics have been measured, so -- [applause] regulatory reform at the department of transportation has been achieved without compromising safety. which is my number one priority. other top priorities are to make progress in addressing our country's infrastructure needs and preparing for the future by promoting safety without hampering innovation. our country is in a transportation revolution, and new technologies will one day transform the way we travel and connect with one another. self driving vehicles, autonomous vehicles, drones and other transportation innovation have the potential to improve safety by addressing human

error. and they will increase access to transportation for the elderly and people with disabilities. but there are legitimate concerns about this new technology as well. a majority of americans tell pollsters that they are unwilling or hesitant to write in self driving cars. they worry about safety and privacy. so i have challenged silicon valley and others innovating in this arena, they have an obligation to help educate the american public of the benefits of this emerging technology but also address these legitimate concerns about the safety, security, and privacy. and as a former secretary of labor, i'm also concerned about the impact these new technologies will have on jobs. i'm confident in the long-term, new technologies create jobs but the transition can be difficult for dislocated workers.

so this needs to be addressed as these technologies are increasingly deployed. this department is not taking the typical washington centered approach toward transportation innovation. we will cultivate and encourage of the safe innovation by eliminating unnecessary obstacles to the development integration of new technology. our approach is going to be tech neutral and flexible, not top-down, not command-and-control. state cultures and the private sector marketplace, not bureaucrats, will decide. [applause] so recently we had the new drone integration program that was established with partnerships between local communities and drone operators. because currently drones can't fly at night.

they can't fly above the heads of people or beyond the site, the line of sight of the operator. so, i mean, nine, the department announced ten communities that would be selected, , that were selected, to participate in this drone pilot program. and we're going to see how this program goes. likewise, the department provided voluntary, not mandatory, guidelines for autonomous vehicles when we unveiled new guidelines last september. and technology is changing so rapidly that work is already underway for aed 3.0, patient for safety for safety which we will release later this summer. so, so much is going on within the department. america's transportation infrastructure is a vital to advancing our economy and our quality of life, and it always has been. i want you to have confidence

that this administration will continue to promote the safe, efficient and effective use of our transportation infrastructure, and that you can rely upon this administration to do the right thing. in closing, i want to thank all of you because you actually give us hope. you give us confidence because you indeed are in the front guard, the vanguard of ensuring that freedom, faith and opportunity continue to be preserved, protected, and thus prevailed in america. thank you so much, and god bless you all. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. appreciate it. thank you. [applause] ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the president of americans for tax reform, grover norquist. ♪ ♪ >> we are winning. but i want to talk a a little t about how far we've come because when we went to battle against britain to become an independent country in the american revolution, it was back in 1774, the average american, the average colonist paid between one and 2% of their income in taxes, total, one and 2%. the british in london were paying 20%. we were paying one or 2%. they were thinking of three and we took the guns out.

there's been a little backsliding. the federal government is about 20% of gdp, state and and local ten or 12. we have a long way to go to get back towards a reasonable level of taxation. but the divisions then are the same as those now. there were two teams during the american revolution. there were the sons of liberty, the patriots that wanted independence and lower taxes, and the other team was known as the friends of government. and somehow that hasn't changed. always there and scrub the question is what's best for the government? if we cut taxes, this government lose it its money? the american people gain resources and time of freedom but the government loses money. they are always very concerned about the government rather than the people. the tax cuts republicans passed in december is a significant step in the right direction.

the left will yell it only benefits 1%. so i've got a couple numbers. 90% of taxpayers are paying lower taxes today than they were days before that tax bill passed. 90%. and a tax cut is a pay increase. when the government takes less of your pay, you have more take-home pay. that is a pay increase, and the left, using the statement by schumer and pelosi, the intent to take back that tax reduction. they intend to raise taxes. they intend to cut your pay. that is what they mean when they say they intend to raise taxes. another number. stock values in this country, peoples 401(k)s, their iras, their lifetime savings

increased by about a third. 60%% of americans are directly working americans are directly in the market with a 401(k) and ira defined contribution. 60%. not one, 60%. %. so when they attack strengthening of the stock market, they attack 60% of people working today, and their life savings which have been increased. you saw that 5,000,000+ americans got bonuses in the first few months of the administration come of the tax cut, of the tax cut, increases $5000 for adoption costs at walmart. all of their employees. this is a tremendous step toward bonuses and various benefits that have been available before because a tax reduction, , the x cut made it possible. the website for americans for tax reform, you can keep track by state of every company that's made an honest with the because of the tax cuts we are doing

this benefit, this increase, this new investment. aftr.org and you can go by state. lastly and this is mentioned by the republican leader, americans for tax reform just a day or two ago put out a list of 100 utilities utilities that make electricity, natural gas, water utilities, 100 that serve 100 million customers that they are all getting lower utility bills because -- [applause] because tax cuts. because we took the corporate rate in america from 35%, the highest in the world, we are the capitals, , the free market guys can you at 35%. ever since clinton to get up to 35, we've five. china come socialist china, 25%.

germany 25%. we are at 35%. while we took it down to 21. trump 12015. i think 15 as a better number than 21, a very good number, a smaller number than 21 and we will get to 1521 to 1521 is ony to 15. [applause] we are moving in the right direction. we are moving quickly in the right direction. we are at 21 now. but a company, utility pass to pay 21% of the profits in taxes, that's over $3 billion a year and all of that money that is no longer paid by those utilities goes directly to utility ratepayers, households, small businesses, the american people, 100 million households of small businesses which is several hundred million americans. again, it keeps things on a 1% benefit but 90%, 60%, darn near

100%. the beneficiaries are everyone in this country, and who benefits most? the person who didn't have a job. and does today. hundreds of thousands of people are getting jobs, coming back into job market. they may have given up and decided there are not any jobs. we know you saw the statistic to wanted as, more jobs open today than there are people looking for work. put those two together. that's the level of opportunity we have in the united states and that we are continuing to build. $700 billion of american earnings, companies overseas, is coming back to the united states this year to invest here. 200 billion freedom directed by the tax cut. massive new investments in plant and equipment, a huge jump in capital expenditures and the way you get sustainable pay increases, not one time things

but sustainable permanent pay increases, ifdef antiworker become more productive. and you do that with more plant and equipment, more capital per worker. that is one of the major things that we could write in this tax bill. let me end by saying this, two things coming. one, you are going to have a vote in the house to make all of those proposed tax cuts for individuals last 19 19 years bt permanently. every democrat will have -- [applause] epidemic of what one more opportunity to vote against your tax cut, against your pay increase and remind you they don't like you very much. and they will take that opportunity. and then in addition to that i believe we will see an executive order out of the secretary of treasury to index capital gains for inflation. so you would no longer pay capital gains tax on the part of the value of your house or your land or stocks. we're going to end by regulation

the tax on inflation. we'll cut the capital gains tax in half we're moving in the right direction. there is more tax reduction to be done. the president said he wants a tax cut every year. we will keep winning. thank you. thank you very much. ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage author and host of the daniel lapin show, rabbi daniel lapin. ♪ >> thank you so much. it was just a mile and half from

here near dupont circle that in may 1925, president calvin coolidge dedicated the first jewish community center in the nation's capital. and at his speech as he laid the foundation, he spoke of the great irish the story of the 19th century william lackey, and recorded him correctly as saying, the foundation stones of american democracy are cemented with a break mortar. and he also spoke about the fact that in 1650 the legal code of connecticut was filled with references to govern according to the laws of god in the bible. and how john davenport in new haven five years later laid out

the code of new haven and again insisted that judges rule according to the biblical laws of god. that's how it used to be big and it's no surprise that we have three foundational pillars of government because they knew better than we knew the verse from isaiah 33, verse 22, for the lord is our judge. the lord is our lawgiver. the lord is our king. the judiciary, the legislature and the executive laid out there in blueprint form. they were completely comfortable with that and completely happy with that, and that is what laid the extent that our entire legal system is based on the legal treatises of john locke. the first one has 1349 biblical

references as sources or the laws that he proposes for the right kind of society. the second volume has somewhat fewer biblical references come in the majority of law schools around america they only studied the second volume, not the first. nobody is comfortable with the biblical foundations of the united states of america. you know, one of the very underlying principles in something that we find in chapters two and three of genesis, what is it? welcome i like to think of a thought experiment. imagine you were a teacher in charge of 50 high school boys. diligence i haven't run amok, you are cast the show and a desert island. you will be there for the next five years. what are the things you're going to have to deal with? well, primarily the issues of

what i think of our -- you may not have any currency that you have to figure out how everybody eats. are you going to let people specialized? are you going to switch peoples jobs, some people will fish, others will look for wild animals? summit has to build shelter, and what about people who slack off and don't work? do they still eat or don't they eat? there's a lot of big money questions that have to be resolved by you the teacher if you are all going to be found alive when the coast guard rescues you five years down the road. but now let's make it a lot more interesting. you are not in charge of 50 high school boys. you are in charge of training five high school boys, and training five girls. now you don't only have monetary concerns. you don't have to deal with issues of eating picky also have to do with issues of sex. what other was going to be? any rules at all? no rules?

who takes care of the girls while there giving birth to babies? the impregnate her everybody? who's going to feed them? who's in charge? what are the relationships? what happens? these are all decisions and the first two chapters of genesis, excuse me, chapters two and three of genesis layout that if you get sex and money right, everything else falls into place. if you get the sexual morality of your society correct, then you get the pragmatic monitor reviews of how human beings cannot interact economic a item then you have a suicide after that. everything else, culture, foreign matters, all those things fall into place, provided, held together by a coherent vision of how these two worrying areas are dealt with.

and we've gone through decades in this country of huge confusion and both of those two areas. huge confusion. homosexual marriage is one thing. abortion and the right to life, those things all spring from how you approach sexuality. and monetary matters, i hardly need to describe what has been done to the economy over the last eight or ten years. it's unimaginable. but it would appear that our country has been granted a reprieve. it would appear that we were transformed on november the eighth, 2016, in a way that

people far wiser than me, people with far more political acumen than me, people with more political experience than me simply cannot explain what happened on that day. [applause] to me it was proof that god is not yet done with the united states of america. i confess, i confess that i regularly and frequently review the youtube videos of the mainstream media that night. i do, because it reminds me that it was miraculous. you see, things that are not miraculous can be explained away, but this one cannot be explained. and i'm just thrilled because i

do believe that america was granted a reprieve, a reprieve that we must seize. [applause] we have a president who legislates and rules on sexual matters affecting the country in a better way then we had seen for many a long gear and the united states of america. when have we had a poor pro-life president? it's extraordinary. it's nothing short of miraculous. our presidents friends from five years ago and tinges ago and 20 years ago would never have predicted this. but that's what we've got. we've got judge gorsuch on the supreme court. that's what we've got. and you got a president who has a pragmatic approach to money. and regulation is being cut back and some of the offensive

excesses of dodd-frank have been pulled back. and this is just the beginning, provided we can seize the reprieve that we've been granted. it's truly quite extraordinary. and for me i believe that all of you here together, ladies and gentlemen, here at the faith and freedom coalition, we who support the faith and freedom coalition and believe that this coalition and its leadership is a vital in helping us all the ability to seize the reprieve. and with god's help, faith and freedom coalition will bring us to a point where we can transform our dissidents into determination. and we can transform our

timidity into triumph. and thereby this organization, i'm proud to be part of, will lead us towards the bright sunlit meadows of tomorrow where all of us will celebrate and then enjoy, just as we are this very day here together. thank you. [applause] ♪ >> so today, we will sweep our next-door neighbors again. >> slow down what's come over the wall. >> is likely to have more noncot experience first, but military, shortage of chaplains is

otherwise. >> i signed up to be where the need is. >> we've got to move. >> you're going to be okay. >> nobody is ever really ready. >> divorce is filed in the last three months. soldiers losing families and having nothing to go home to is not the stabilizing force we need around here. >> my marriage isn't none of your business. you don't know anything about me or my family. >> couldn't save the chaplain. do whatever it is you do. >> i feel like there's something more that is happening between us. >> it's not between you two.

it's between you two and that were. >> get us out of here. >> take us out. >> you trusted in god to what you thought he ought to do. >> i want to know why you have it in you to show up for those men. >> because they need me. >> i need you. ♪ >> along the path they've set traps to catch me. >> you are my strong delivery. you healed my head in the day of battle. amen. >> amen.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the southeast director of the faith and freedom coalition, virginia galloway. [applause] >> thank you. in many ways senator david purdue is the original political outsider. he grew up in georgia, worked his way through georgia tech, and then spent four decades in the business world before joining the u.s. senate. he is the only fortune 500 ceo in congress today, and he sits on the powerful banking, budget, armed services, and agriculture committees. he was an early supporter of president trump and is one of

president trump's closest allies in the united states senate. he is also leading the charge for the senate to work nights, weekends, and through recess to break through the gridlock and make congress work again. it is my pleasure to introduce to you today my friend and a great friend of the faith and freedom coalition, senator david purdue. thank you. ♪ >> all, wow, hey. thank you. thank you. boy, such an honor for me to be here again this year at the faith and freedom coalition. i just want to thank ralph and his family for everything they've done what faith and freedom does in my home state of georgia and around the country and, indeed, the world. i heard the refuge georgia folks you today. isn't that right?

[applause] folks, today president trump's agenda is working. last year he said that job one was growing the economy and we worked on regulation, energy and taxes. issue we just passed the dodd-frank reform bill that frees up capital for our small banks and local commuters. it will have an earth shattering impact on local communities. all this is freeing up some $6 trillion of capital back into our economy. i'm just a business card but i can show this agenda is working. 3.5 million new jobs have been criticism president trump trump took office, 870 regulations have been reversed. consumer and ceo confidence is at a 20 year high and i'm proud to stand you before you today d tell you that because of upon a person can we pass in the senate, 1550 people have been fired at the b for not taking care of our veterans. [applause]

another statistic that i'm very proud of and this affects lives is that today african-american unemployment is at the lowest level it's been in the united states history, folks. [applause] and probably most important of all i think is that when the great recession hit us as backn 2008 and nine millions lost their jobs. they lost hope. and today because of president trump's agenda 900,000 people have found work, we gain self-confidence and rejoined the workforce your there is no question that we have turned the tide of drift toward social in america, yes, toward socials. who would've believed we would had a president duterte it who had the gall as of the soviet, after all the socialist exhibits have failed around the world, who would ever believe you have a presidential candidate talk about it? we can never take that for granted. today i want to talk about the

different threat, one we cannot ignore. we are facing another challenge and for the next 50 years it's not going to go away. the struggle in the world will be between i believe self-determination which is what we stand for, and state control. last month would've been part of marks 200th birthday, and one country actually built, paid for and shipped a huge statue of marks to his birthplace in germany. that country was the people's republic of china. china today and this underscores a dedicated they are to continue the principles of communism around the world. today china is of the world's second largest economy at $12 trillion. it is rapidly built up its military and charted plans for economic dominance. the made in china 2025 initiative is by that poses a threat to american leadership in technology and all the economic and social endeavors. i used to live there. this is real.

they're one belt, one road initiative is the largest global infrastructure investment since the marshall plan after world war ii. at the same time the chinese governments commitment to total control of its people is strengthening at an ever increasing rate today. was just over there. in march of this year president xi jinping consolidated power and became president for life, just like mousy dong. in april -- mao zedong. crackdown on christianity by banding online bible sales. today the bible is the only major religious text that you cannot buy commercial in the people's republic of china. that's unacceptable. in addition the chinese government is greeting a social credit score, listen to this, i don't think you've seen this in the western media yesterday. this is real. they are developing a a social credit score and every individual in china it's based on how well they can form to

state standards. they use national network of 176 million cameras to monitor their citizens, and used computerized facial recognition and artificial intelligence they can identify and detain people for reeducation. think about that. within two years, one-fifth of the population of the world, they'll have to be chinese, is going to have an arbitrary government score the potentially restricts their freedom. to me that is terribly terrifying. since nixon relations with china generation of foreign-policy experts have bought thought they give you access more access and increased and in the world would make the country freer, more capitalistic and lean toward our values. well, we've all been very wrong. china's listed it often quote proverbs from 36 chinese strategists which were developed

during the warring states period of chinese history between 400 0 bc and 400 a.d. chinese is meant as the world hegemon of using propaganda to convince the rest of the world that america's is today's aggressive. confucius once said that cannot be two sons in the sky, nor to emperors on the earth. we clearly see what the patient is for the world. to deal with this threat we've got to take care of what god has given us here in the united states. america still the largest economy in the world. we still have the strongest military in the world history. america still be innovating engine of humankind history. america still a model of freedom around the world. today, president donald j. trump thanks to you is in the white house and not hillary rodham clinton. [applause] i thank god for a lot of things but i

but i thank god every day for that. president trump is reengage in with the rest of the world, and reassuring our allies, reassuring and reasserting american leadership in priorities. we don't want to be vegan line but we stand for freedom. there so many people around the world that i met the last three years that depend on us for encouragement, for support because they are fighting for their freedom. trump is rebuilding our economy, our military and a global alliances after eight years of withdrawal from the international scene. he understands the future of our republic is at stake. let me say that again. donald trump understands that our republic is at stake and i hope to deliver that message to today. i think it just that seriously. that's why i ran for the senate. those are you from georgian of this is not a new message for me. me. i fully believe, i fully believe -- [applause] thank you here trump has called out china's theft of her intellectual properties.

when was the last president in dealing with this issue? donald trump has brought china to the tray table and he secured their help with north korea and we need to pray for him this weekend as he goes to singapore. to protect our freedoms and to deal with china, washington is got to start thinking long term, however in 1789 when george washington took office as our first president, china had indeed the largest economy in the world at that time. not many americans know that. now they're aiming to reclaim what they believe is the rightful place in the world order. and this place, us, in the process. want to protect our freedoms, we cannot ignore this any longer. we got to be kitchen to this drive from china. we need to change the way washington does business. including solving one of our most insidious and dangerous issues, and that's our debt crisis. i'm fully committed before i

leave for that we're going to have a plan and develop a plan long-term to give us financial security again. [applause] and i think the time has come finally i think the time is come, i said this, this is my third speech here with you guys since i've been elected and i can tell you i'm not giving up on this one, it is finally time we bring term limits to the united states congress. [applause] and some people around the world call this american arrogance. i don't know we can no longer call our position in the world for granted. we know the importance of freedom. we know god is the source of our freedom. we know that self-determination has always trumped state control. or self-determination to went around the world it has to win here at home first because we are a bastion of strength for freedom around the world. meetings like this is a critical. people around the world watch

what you do. they are encouraged by what we do every day. president trump is committed to defending our rights under the constitution including freedom of speech, freedom of religion and yes, freedom to bear arms. however, we just cannot become complacent. over the last when it hears america's been on a slow slide toward liberal progressive policies, bigger government, more government spending and yes, less personal freedom. when a judge trying to ask a pastor for his sermon notes before he gives a sermon, we've got a serious problem, gel. president trump is fighting this over to stay united behind him and his agenda. in america we believe in our founding principles these are not just words. these are founding principles that give us the freedoms we have today. economic opportunity, fiscal responsibility, limited government and individual

liberty. you know, four miles from where we sit today carved in stone and one of our most cherished memorials are the following words -- god who gave us life gave us liberty. can the liberties of a nation be secure when we are removed a conviction that those liberties are the gift of god? thomas jefferson 1790. those words could be truer today. there's no doubt we face great challenges around the world at home. our liberties are blessing water history has shown they must be fought for, protected, and passed on to part of the generation so they can do the same thing. today the united states is the leader of the free world, thanks to you. if we're committed to self-determination and freedom, we can help unleash a new era of opportunity, security and prosperity around the world, not just at home.

we didn't choose this responsibly. i think it's our destiny. together you and i can mature america and the world's best days are indeed ahead. if not now, when? if not us, who? thank you for all you do. god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. thank you. thank you. ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to the stage ralph reed. ♪ >> wow, what a program. isn't this great? the best part is we're not done

yet. sector of housing and urban development ben carson just left. his department headquarters will be here shortly, but before come he's one of our favorite. we look for to having him, but before he comes, it's my great privilege to welcome for conversation about israeli u.s. relations, someone who's become a good friend of mine and is a great friend of this organization, ron dermer up in miami beach. he got a business degree from the wharton school of business at the university of pennsylvania. i will let him tell the story but i believe it was while a student there that he read the art of the deal by an author named donald trump, and it inspired him to pursue his career. picky then got a degree in oxford university. he moved to israel from the united states when he was 25.

he became a columnist for the jerusalem post and then he served in the number of critical position in the israeli government and became the senior advisor to prime minister bibi netanyahu. in 2013 he was named the israeli ambassador to the united states. and october he will enter his six year of service in that position where, at that point, he will be the longest serving israeli ambassador to the united states in over half a century. he is highly regarded by this administration. he has counsel and his views are treasured by the prime minister of israel. he is one of the most effective ambassadors that the jewish state has ever had. not only to the united states, but to any country. and we are honored to welcome him back to this stage. please welcome ron dermer, the

israeli ambassador to the united states. [applause] ♪ >> you didn't say we are also both dolphins fans. >> i was going to get to that. that's in the q&a. >> long-suffering. long-suffering. >> i give you go you were here, and i asked you about a waiver that the president had just signed to delay for another six months the legally required move of the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. and if memory serves, you sit at the time that while you're disappointed by the signing of the waiver, you are absolutely

confident it wasn't a question of if but when the embassy was moved. last month it was my privilege to be at the dedication ceremony for the new u.s. embassy. [applause] your confidence was not misplaced, but tell our activists why that was so important and what it means to the state of israel and to israel and u.s. relations. >> well, it was a historic day, one of the most historic days that i've ever seen in the 20 some odd years since i've moved to israel. the whole country felt about tee probably standing on 3000 years of our history in that city, and also on the shoulders of the greatest power on earth, and so we are deeply appreciative of president trump's decision. this is a decision that will echo across the generations. the jewish people remember

cyrus. cyrus. 2500 years ago, cyrus enabled the jews to go back, king cyrus of persia come enabled the jews to go back, return to israel and rebuild the second temple. it's actually the last verse in one of the books of the bible. we remember cyrus and 25 years ago. i'm not sure the persians remember cyrus but the jewish people remember cyrus. and this decision of president trump will be remembered for generations to come and it's one of the great historic decisions that were made in history of zionism. one averages ago you by the balfour declaration which recognize the rights of the jewish people to a national home and are historical moment. you had a at the u.n. in the partition resolution recognize the right of the jewish people to a state 70 years ago in 1947. you had a a decision 1948, it took president trump all of 11 minutes to recognize the newly

established individual. i would put this as the fourth, because what jerusalem instead the jewish people, we're going to carry this decision with us way out into the future. there is no people on earth that has a relationship with the city like the jewish people's relationship with jerusalem because it captured our imagination and captivated our imagination, even when we were not a sovereign power there. for 2000 years we were dreaming of jerusalem. we would turn in prayer towards jerusalem. .. . >> well, when you were there, the people of israel could say

it in jerusalem. and we're deeply, deeply grateful. [ applause ] >> you know, we've -- to not say anything disrespectful about presidents who came before. because i had a very good friend who was one of them. george w. bush who i personally thought was the most pro-israel president up until that time. but the congress passed this law in 1995. and bill clinton signed it into law. that was 23 years ago. what is it in your experience? i know that you interact very closely with the white house and with this administration. speaking as somebody who grew up in the united states, but as somebody who now is an israeli government official, what is it about him that you think made it possible for him to do something that somebody had taken a pass on before? >> willingness to stand against

the current. it's attesting real leadership. [ applause ] >> and i appreciate many things former presidents -- many former presidents. >> uh-huh. >> and all of them have done different things for israel. but this was a case where president trump thought this was the right thing to do. it should have been done 70 years ago frankly. it has nothing to do with the peace process. people that say that have to ask themselves, well, jerusalem was israel's capital in 1999. what happened when that peace process began. there was always another reason and always another excuse and always somebody, a skeptic or critic would say do it in six months. we'll do it next year. we'll do it next year. and i think president trump seems to be pretty comfortable standing against the current.

[ laughing ] >> you know, we were -- for a lot of political leaders, if they get hit with a bad editori editorial, it will ruin their day. i think president trump seems to be able to keep going through his day, even with some shots against him. and i think he saw this is the right thing to do. it should have been done a long time ago. i promise to do it and i intend to keep my promise. and this is the right thing to advance peace. and here is something that i don't think people understand. the reason why we don't have peace is because the palestinians refuse to recognize the right of the jewish people to its state and our historic homeland. that's what the conflict is about. and they try to deny any connection between the jewish people and the land of israel. any connection between the jewish people and jerusalem. so they said to president clinton there was never a temple on the temple mound. and the leader -- the current leader of the palestinians denies the connection between the jewish people and jerusalem.

he even says the jews are trying to judiasize jerusalem. that's like the chinese is trying to chinize beijing. but why this re saying these things -- are they saying these things which is not true. it's fake history. why? because they're worried that to recognize a connection between the jewish people and the land of israel, to recognize the connection between the jewish people and jerusalem is actually to say that the jewish people are in this land by right and not just by might. and they want to keep their people to believe in this great lie that the jewish people are born colonialist. it sounds crazy. but they say for you this land is like india for the british or alg algeria for the french. this is the land of israel. this is where the patriarchs of the jewish people where they

pray and the prophets preach. so president trump making the decision to no longer leave the legitimacy of the israel's right in jerusalem, suspended in air, punctures this lie. and for laying the cornerstone for that embassy, he actually laid a cornerstone not just for truth, but for peace. [ applause ] >> now, when president trump announced he was going to make the decision, which unless i'm wrong was early december of last year. >> december 6th. >> december 6th. >> a day that will be famous for the jewish people for a long time. >> there were all of these warnings that the west bank and gaza and much of the arab world would explode in violence. did not happen frankly. but then on the day of the dedication ceremony, there was a

violent protest on the gaza israeli border. from my vantage point, it looked like it was deliberately designed to create a split screen of contrast of the ceremony. those protests and the deaths of some of the protestors were heavily covered by the mainstream media. what do supporters of israel need to know about what happened that day or what may happen in the future with regard to some of this violence? >> well, first of all, they should know that these were not protestor's peaceful protestors. this was a violent mob. i don't know many peaceful protests. i've seen those before. martin luther king used to have peaceful protests and ghandi used to have peaceful protests. this was a riot. what people have to know, first of all, it has nothing to do

with jerusalem. it happened at the same time one week. we had protests many, many weeks before and we had protests after. it had nothing to do with the embassy. and don't take my word for it. take the terror organization that control gaza, they said it had nothing to do with the embassy. but because it happened on a day when a senior administration officials were there in jerusalem, the media tried to actually turn it into a story based on no facts at all that these protestors in gaza were protesting the embassy. there was a protest against the embassy opening. it was in the west bank. no one got killed. it didn't make headlines. there was barely nothing in jerusalem. nothing throughout the middle east. the protest in gaza. it was called the march of return. it was because they wanted the grandchildren descendents of refugee from our wars of

independence where israel was attacked by five different countries, the refugees from that war were going to return to the homes of the jews. and the leader says we are going to break through this fence and we're going to communities right next to the fence and we're going to pull the hearts out of the jews. that's the language the leader of hamas used. so our military is manning that line against that violent mob. and all i would ask friends of israel to think about is what would you do if on one of your borders you had 30,000 people. you had a leader who said when they break through that fence, they're going to go into communities a few hundred miles away and pull the hearts out of americans that live there. would you want your soldiers to man that line and not let them get through that frienence? yes. and we did everything we could --. [ applause ] >> remind you, we don't want to

see any violence. and we do everything we can to prevent casualties on their side. i wish we had somebody on their side who cared as much about their people as we care about them. [ applause ] >> we fired tear gas. we are not going to allow them to break through that fence and slaughter our civilians to get a good story on cnn. better bad threats than a good eulogy. [ applause ] >> and i just want to add one thing. this spokesman of hamas after everybody slammed israel and all the media attacks us for killing innocence, the spokesman of hamas says 50 of the 62 people who were killed that day, 50 of the 62 were members of his terror organization. think about that. and how the lies against israel

goes all the way around the world. israel defends itself not just as any democratic country would. it defends itself in the way that no other country does than any other nation in history. that is the truth, and i'm proud of israel's military. [ applause ] >> you know, shortly before the move of the embassy, the president announced that the united states was going to withdraw from the iran nuclear deal. you and i had talked about that before. you were hopeful that that was the decision the president would make. i guess my question would be, first of all, as you know, we opposed the original agreement. we did everything we could as an organization to prevent that from taking affect. for reasons that we don't need

to get into today because it's water under the bridge. rather than having a vote on what we thought it legally was, which was a treatise. we had a bizarre parliamentry process where they had to reject it not to take effect. that proved to be a bridge too far. but now that the united states has withdrawn, number one, let me ask you, two part question, number one, do you think the european government and the private companies that have rushed into iran to do business will pull out and will go the way the u.s.? and, number two, what do you think comes next with regard to either a replacement for that deal or a coalition effort to contain iran? >> well, first of all, let me thank you for opposing that deal with iran to anyone who did it

at the time. [ applause ] >> and i don't want to get into all of the details. but this deal did not block iran's pass to iran. if it did, our country faces in iran that openly calls and actively works for our annihilation. i would have gone house to house, community to community to plead with you to support that deal. the reason why we opposed it and the reason why my prime minister came to congress to speak against the deal is because the deal didn't do that. it actually pays iran's pass. not just through a bomb, through an entire nuclear arson. and all it did was temporarily block them for a few short years it puts restraints on that are automatically removed a few years later. and then you want them to sink into the nuclear club, they can just walk in. and i know that a decade seems

like a long time in the life of politics. but it's the blink of an eye in the life of a nation. and we saw this deal as cruise control heading over a cliff. and my prime minister was always focused on the cliff. and i cannot tell you how much i appreciate president president trump's decision to not take the can down the road. he could have said, do you know what, we're going to be on cruise control for another four years. maybe another eight years. why should i deal with it? let it blow up on somebody else's watch. he took the wheel and turned it into a different direction. and now iran does not have a glide pass to nuclear weapons. [ applause ] >> in the meantime from my point of view, from my point of view, ralph, this is a hinge of history. it's what churchill spoke of. a hinge of history. by turning that wheel. and we are so appreciative of the president of the united states talk about standing against the current. >> uh-huh. >> standing against the current and doing the right thing. and what iran got from this deal is not just a clear pass to the

bomb. it got all the sanctions removed that were head winds that was confronting it. and now you have ten hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into iranian koufrs. and i would like to tell you they've been using that money for returning members of the national guard. but instead they've been using it to fuel their war machine in iraq, in syria, in lebanon, in yemen, to fuel their terror campaign. and they have been at war with america for 40 years. this is a government that leads thousands, maybe tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions in chance of death to america. >> uh-huh. >> and empowering this type of enemy in the hope that somehow this will moderate them. in the hopes that this will improve. you have a situation where israel is opposed to it. and thank god my prime minister showed up to speak in congress

and tell the truth also to the american people. [ applause ] >> but the air and state were also opposed in the region. they weren't willing to say publicly what they would say privately. now the allies in the region are saying this about you. let me ask you something, ralph. let's say you're in agreement with north korea and let's say the british, the french and the german say, you know, that's a great deal. but the japanese and the south koreans think it's a kafrts -- catastrophe. who are you going to listen to? probably the allies. we say it's a terrible deal and we are so thankful, both of us. and when israelis and arabs are on the same page, that's the ultimate no spin zone. now you ask me the question about europe. the british, french, germans think it makes them safer. that's great. people who live in israel don't.

people who live in the region don't. we think it's a disaster. but i think really they face a choice now the british, french, germans and others. a simple choice. do you want to choose to do business with a $20 trillion american economy or $400 billion iranian economy? do you want to choose to do business with a company that accounts for 40% of capital flow or a country that's irrelevant financial markets. what do you think the german bank is going to choose? what do you think the french oil company is going to choose? i think it's pretty clear it requires the president's leadership, but i think they're going to follow. and what we want to see happen, they don't want to follow, but this is a pretty strong economy. and hopefully it will continue to get stronger and stronger and stronger. what we would like to see now is not only them join the united states but a more and more united effort to role back iran's aggression in the region and put enormous pressures on this regime. because this regime people should understand is hated by

people. you see some of these protests come out in iran. they hate them. but they're governed by these thee cratic thugs and killers who run iran. we should put massive pressure on them. support the people in iran who actually want their freedom and could be allies of israel and america and everyone else. pressure as soon as possible. [ applause ] >> i mean, i guess what americans are wondering, what people all over the world who are friends of israel and want to see peace and stability in the middle east is will the ending and unraveling of this deal prevent iran from seeking a weapon? will there need to be further economic pressure? is there possibility that the united states, israel or others will have to consider a military option? i mean, this looks like a very

extreme government. >> it is. but understand that the people who argued for this deal were saying this is going to bring peace closer. it's going to push war further away. >> really? >> this deal and the funding of all of these enemies, of israel and america, has only brought war closer. if people have been paying attention to what has happened in syria over the last few months, we've had attack from syria. they fired a drone into our air space. they fired a rocket. for the first time they fired rockets into israel and we responded to that fire. so this deal was bringing conventional war with iran much closer. there wasn't a question this could happen decades. it could be years from now. it could happen months from now. and it also gave them the clear pass to a nuclear arson. so right now the decision the president made makes everybody safer who wants to oppose iran

and the region. now, iran will have to make a choice of what they're going to do now. >> uh-huh. >> i believe that the right policy is a policy of crippling sanctions combined with a credible military threat. we, of course, will never allow a regime that calls our annihilation to achieve, attain, develop the weapons to achieve that goal. so israel is committed to preventing it. i think everybody is clear about that. and i think the united states is clear that they're never goin to allow iran to get nuclear weapons. not now, not five years, not ten years. and i think the iranian people take president trump very, very seriously. that's the mistake people make. you think --. [ applause ] >> i heard after about the america's credibility. that america's credibility went down when president trump walked away from the deal. that's absurd. your credibility with your enemy, and that's where credibility is most important, flew up.

because now your enemies understand that president trump is not prepared to accept a bad deal that will endanger america in the future. that's a good thing. [ applause ] >> that's pretty good before you sit down with a regime like north korea. believe me, that north korean leader is more concerned after trump walked away than if he would have just stayed in the agreement and everybody would have applauded themselves on the back as they stuck their heads in the sand. >> uh-huh. you know, you mentioned syria. you know, that has been a tragic thing to watch unfold. you see different estimates of 300,000, 400,000, 500,000. and civilians have been killed. iran has moved in. russia has moved in. turkey has moved in in a dispute with the curds, although it looks like we may have been able to tamp that down a little bit. what's the solution to that conflict?

or is there one? and given the fact that it's happening right on israel's border, there's regently been some military activity. what needs to be done in israel's view to bring stability to that troubled country? >> well, if you -- ralph, if you ask 100 different israelis what they would like see happen in syria, you will probably get 150 different answers. but if you ask them what they don't want to see, you'll get one answer. we don't want to see iran and syria. iran has to leave syria. that's the great danger for us. because what iran is trying to do is essentially put a noose around israel's neck. they already have in isbala and lebanon. they have over 100,000 rockets. that he trieri-- they're tryingt more and more sophisticated weapons. what they're trying to do is establish a permanent military presence in syria.

iran is trying to establish a permanent military presence in syria. and another base to use to attack israel and to essentially create a land bridge that would stretch from iran through iraq, syria and lebanon. on the mediterranean. i don't know if this is true historically. but i think the last time the persians were in the mediterranean were probably in the time of alexander the great. so i don't know if you want to actually have that happen with a regime that hates america and has been at war with america for the last 40 years. from the beginning, they sort of told you what they were all about at hello when they took over the embassy. and then bombing u.s. installations in africa. bombing the marine barracks in lebanon. killing 241 u.s. marines. killing -- being responsible for the murder of hundreds of america servicemen in iraq with explosive devices they were

passing on to their militia. this is a regime at war with america responsible for the death of hundreds, probably thousands of americans. so you don't want to let them establish a land bridge into the mediterranean. so what we need to do is we need to push them back. now, israel will do its part. we intend to enforce our red lines. we said we're not going to allow them to establish that military -- those military bases against israel and syria. we're going to prevent them from passing on more sophisticated weapons to isbala. we're going to enforce our border. we're going to do all of those thing and we're going to push them back. but what i think is needed now is, frankly, a u.s.-russian agreement regarding syria. a political understanding regarding syria that would push iran out. russia is there. they have interests, long-term interests in syria for many decades. russia, unlike un, doesn't call for the annihilation of israel. their interests are not our

major concern. and we do believe that there is faith and a possibility for a potential u.s.-russian understanding regarding syria that will push iran out and will enable that country to have a future. >> fantastic. [ applause ] >> now, ron, as ambassador, as much as you interact with the senior counsels of this administration, you also understand that a country having strong relations with another country, given the tremendous historical importance of the bonds of friendship between israel and the united states, you've also done a lot to build those bonds and deepen that friendship in other areas; in athletics, in culture, in music and in other ways. talk a little bit about that. why you've done that.

maybe share with folks some of the successes you've had. >> well, look, this relationship between the united states and israel is very deep. it's very strong. it's very broad. it didn't always start out that way. we tend to glamorize the relationship between the united states and israel. in 1948, everybody knows the story that truman recognized israel in all of 11 minutes. that's how long it took him. but what they usually don't tell y is the u.s. had an arms embargo and we were literally fighting for our life and the enemies were getting on with others. and so the first 20 years, the relationship was one of moral support of certain political leaders. it was actually when israel proved itself a formidable ally during the cold war back in 1967 by defeating soviet client states. also in 1973, again, when we had a surprise attack against israel and we repelled that aggression

against us. israel proved itself in the cold war a reliable ally. and then people started investing in it. and then our strategic relationship again. and then we had a peace agreement with egypt where we had to withdraw which is a huge piece of territory. it's about two to three times bigger than the entire state of israel. so we made a huge concession and the united states rightly wanted to strengthen israel in the wake of that and towards peace. but our alliance now with the u.s. is in a different place than it was even in those years. because i believe, and this may be surprised -- maybe it won't surprise you, but it will surprise some people. i believe israel is going to be one of the most important allies to the united states in the 20th century. the most important. [ applause ] >> now, i'll tell you why. we're going to be the most important ally. the most important ally in the 20th century was great britain. i think we can agree on that. but israel is going to be the most important for two reasons:

security and technology. the great dangers in the united states are going to unfortunately emanate from our region in the middle east. if you want to send troops there, masses of troops, maybe israel wouldn't be that important. but i don't think you want to send masses of troops to the region. so i think you need a reliable democratic ally that shares your interests, shares your values, are willing to defend those interests and those values in the region. because you don't want to be there. and we're there. you don't have to do nation building with us. we're already built. all right. and we're strong. and we share your interest and your values. and we're willing to defend that in the way. we have never in all of the years of israel asked the united states to send troops to defend us. one of the great things about the birth of israel is for the first time in 2,000 years the jews don't ask others to defend them. in israel, the jewish people defend themselves.

[ applause ] >> and that's the story of security. and if you think about, well, which country in the world is most important for that security alliance, think about israel's intelligence agency. one of the best intelligence agency in the world as you saw from that atomic archive. how about a round of applause for israel. [ applause ] >> our intelligence agencies have some 200 major terrorist attacks, major terrorist attacks in the last two years. a plane being blown out of the sky taking off from australia heading to the middle east. terror attacks of the scale that you saw in paris when over 100 people were killed. those types of attacks is israel's intelligence services keeping the world safe and passing that on to other intelligence agencies. so if you look at a security partner around the world, israel is pretty good.

and i put us up there with any of your partners, even your european partners when it comes to security. but the second thing here, and this is where it sets israel apart, is technology. there are two great centers of innovation in the world. one of them is to the west in silicon valley. the other is in israel. israel, all of 70 years young, and fewer than 9 million people, all the size of new jersey, is a global technological power. we are a global power in agriculture innovation, in water innovation, in cyber. israel's last couple years accounted for 20% of private global. now, we're one tenth of 1% of the world's population. so in cyber, israel is not a small country the size of new jersey. israel is bigger than a china. and you see that in autonomous

vehicles. intel, one of your big companies bought a company for $15 billion last year. that's a lot. but also gave them -- that company mobilized the keys to their development of autonomous vehicles around the world. so in all of these cutting edge sectors of tomorrow, who is your best technology partner in the world? it's not a european country. in absolute terms, it's actually israel. so we're going to move ahead. this is a short answer to what was a very long question. [ laughing ] >> i want to get back to what you said. >> look, we share interests and we share values. you share interests and values with other democracies. you do. but you don't share with them what you share with us. or they don't recognize it in the same way. we don't share that sense. israel and america are not just countries. we are colleagues.

[ applause ] >> i will tell you as long as israel and america believe in that cause, this alliance will be rock solid. because as long as we share that sense of destiny, we will have a sense of destiny. ultimately where that has to be shared is not just at the leadership of a president or congress. it's with the american people. and i tried as ambassador to reach out to all of the groups that you're saying to engage directly with american people and keep a new generation of americans connected with israel. now, today i'm glad to tell you or ralph that support for israel is at record high among the american people. record high.

[ applause ] >> are you favorable to israel? we are about 75%. >> 75. >> 75%. the only time ever recorded in the last 40 years that was greater. and it's an annual poll in 1991 during the first gulf war. was that number sort of peaked and then it dropped down and it's been rising. it's now about 75% of the american people. intensity of support. those who see it favorable is 31%. the highest number ever recorded. [ applause ] >> and, by the way, the sizeable chunk of that 31% are devout christians in the united states. >> yep. >> they are the -- they always say america is the backbone of our support in the world. the backbone of that backbone is the state community among christians in the united states. and i just tell you how thankful

--. [ applause ] >> how thankful we are for that sort of support. but we want to not only engage with them. and this community people who are members of the faith and freedom commission are really on the front lines on the grass roots around the country. and you know who is out there fighting efforts to boycott israel. because i sanctioned israel which is the most foolish thing you can do. to boycott israel it's like oregon, nevada, utah, new mexico and southern california boycotting silicon valley. not very smart. but there are people who want to push this agenda to sort of boycott israel and try to turn up a most illegal democracy on earth. do you know who is leading that charge against that in many communities? it's actually devout christians who are fighting at the local level and the state level to make sure that their cities and

states never agree to boycott israel who are anti-seminism. and i'll explain why. when somebody comes to me and says, well, this or that church group, even church group, this or that academic group wants to boycott israel. i ask them what number are we on their list? maybe we're number 51, 21, 71% of countries around the world that we want to boycott. if that's the case, i know i'm dealing with somebody who has a principle. an organization that has a value. and i see my job as israel's ambassador why they're wrong. with all of the nuances and complexts -- complexities. the fact that this is happening by church groups or economic groups almost boggles the mind.

if you have actually groups in america that call for boycott at a time when christians are being decimated in the middle east. christians being decapitated in the middle east. we're the only country in the middle east that has a growing population the state of israel. four or five times it was. the only place where christians are truly safe in the middle east is israel. so you have church groups asking to boycott. or an academic group in a world when academics are shot for what they believe. they're thrown in prison. but when somebody comes to me and say we want to do it. i say what number are we on the list. 21, 51, 71, like i say to them. when i find out we're the only one on their list, there's no one else that they're boycotting, all of the regimes around the world, 500,000 people

dead in syria. i'm not going to talk about north korea. because the president has his summit coming up. but everyone knows what goes on in north korea. or in iran. or in venezuela. and all these places where the situation for the public is so bad and you've chosen to single out israel alone, the middle east, the only democracy, the only state that values human rights. women's rights, minority rights. you name it, they're in israel. you single out israel, there is a name for the singling out of jews historically. it was called anti-semitism. to treat the jewish people differently than other people. to treat the jewish state differently is anti-semitism. i appreciate the efforts of people who support this coalition to do it throughout the kucountry.

and i would encourage you to do each more. [ applause ] >> yes. all right. ron -- >> i also get to throw out a couple of pitches. >> yes. >> at wrigley two days ago, i threw out a first pitch. i played basketball, football and baseball. but i'm disappointed to tell you that the count is 2-0 on those two pitches. two balls, no strikes. so any other sports teams watching. but i still have a few more pitches in me to sort of get it right. >> if you go to the ambassador's twitter feed, he has posted the video of those two pitches. and we're hoping for a strike next time. >> yes. i figure really bring the heat. [ laughing ] >> israel like to have the odds really, really stacked against us before we actually go in. >> we're going to have you at a braves game soon, ron. i'll tell you that. last question as a miami boy, i

want to know your prediction on the dolphins win-loss record this year and what -- >> is this taped? >> this is being live broadcast. this is not only taped. this is on c-span, so you're going to go on the record. >> well, this is the difference between ralph and me. he wants to get to the promise land. football promise land through the dolphins. i learned in about the mid 90s after about 20 years of not being in the promise land that this wasn't going to happen. so i just went to the real promise land. [ laughing ] >> but my prediction, like every miami dolphin fan at the beginning of the season, is that the miami dolphins will win the superbowl. that's my prediction. and the cubs were predicting it for 108 years until it happened. >> but they did it.

>> here is what i figure. just say it's going to happen. because there's no one in america that's predicting the dolphins will win the superbowl. but now you have it on tape right here freedom and faith coalition. we'll see what happens. one thing i can guarantee you. if the dolphins are in the superbowl next year, i know who i'm going to be sitting right next to. ralph reed. >> ron, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, ron dermer. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the executive director of the faith and freedom coalition timothy head. . [ applause ] >> so a profound voice not only

a pro-israel voice but frankly a call. nice to hear from somebody like ron dermer, right? so we actually are just a few minutes out from dr. carson being with us. he's pulling in. but i also want to -- before we hear from him, i want to remind you guys that we'll have some breakout sessions this afternoon. so just right down the hall up next to the registration desk that you came in, we're starting from 1:30 to 2:30. we'll have two different panels going on. one we have a slight deviation from what's in your program. i'm going to do -- have a little visit similar to what we just had with mr. dermer, the white house deputy director of legislative affairs are going to visit a little bit on

accomplishments so far. we've heard from policy. but this is a chance to actually have their two individuals play key roles. it's obviously a large team effort. but paul teller and a couple of his colleagues play key roles in working through the white house with the senate and the house. and so paul teller, we're pleads that dr. teller is going to be with us for a good visit from 1:30 to 2:30. that's in the palladian room. and then the second breakout we've doing, you've heard some conversation or maybe some allusions to work that's being done right now on the hill regarding human trafficking. so we're going to actually have a breakout in the room called congressional a and b. and that, likewise, is just right next to the registration table upstairs. so it will be great. one of the legislative directors for congresswoman anne wagner

who actually passed the bill, the bill that restricts organizations or online portal-like backpage.com if you're familiar with some of the back story here. backpage.com was really an incredibly bad actor. was a website that frankly millions and millions of people were using to do really terrible things. and so anne wagner was instrumental. really led the charge in passing a bill where the legislature director is going to be with us in congressional a and b to kind of talk about the bill itself and some of the back story on that. as well as jeff rogers who is the ceo of a group called the u.s. institute against human trafficking, which is for our two cents is one of the most reliable organizations in combatting this. and also a gentleman named alex trudo.

a sociologist talking about the abolition of sex slavery. the moernd -- modern slave trade. so they'll be up with us up in congressional a and b. so these are going to be really, really impactful. it's kind of a peek behind the curtain, if you will. and after that from 2:30 to 3:30, we'll have a couple more -- we'll actually have three breakout panels. also congressional a and b where we're going to have the human trafficking piece. right after that from 2:30 to 3:00, we'll have one on -- there's an organization called the job creators network. so it's a small business -- think of it kind of like a small business chamber of commerce that has been working not just for tax reform at large. but specifically for the voices of small businesses and small family-owned, family-run organizations across the

country. so job creators network has been instrumental in a lot of the tax reform that has happened for the small business communities across our nation. so we're thrilled that they're going to be with us sharing a little bit on the impact that we're already seeing. they track very closely the economic benefits that are being realized in real time now as it relates to the tax reform that came back and came down the pike last year. in palladium room we'll also do a breakout from -- we're calling it beyond prison reform to second chances. but this is -- there's an organization called charles coat institute that is really the tip of the spear and a lot of the research around this. great organization. and so palladium room we would like to have you join us.

and also state legislators from three different states join us to talk about state reform. impactful state reform on life and religious liberty and economic opportunity, et cetera. so plenty of options for you this afternoon. and then we'll leave from there and head over to the museum of the bible. those of you who have tickets. and we're looking forward to afternoon at museum of the bible and on to a great evening tonight. so we are thrilled that you are here. but if you would join me actually there was another gentleman that i was going to introduce. but would you join me in welcoming craig brown to the stage. [ applause ] >> ♪ music . >> good afternoon faith and freedom. on march 2nd, 2017, dr. benjamin s carson senior was sworn in as the 17th secretary of the u.s.

department of housing and urban development. for nearly 30 years, secretary carson served as director of pediatrician neuro surgery at the john hopkins children's center. a position he assumed when he was just 33 years old, becoming the youngest major division director in the hospital's history. in 1987, he successfully performed the first separation of cranial pagus twins conjoined at the back of the head. he also conjoined the first fully successful separation of type two cranial pagas twins in 1997 in south africa. dr. carson has received dozens of honors and awards in recognition of his achievements, including the presidential medal of freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. he is also a recipient of the spam medal, the highest honor bestowed by the ncaa -- naacp.

excuse me. [ laughing ] >> dr. carson has authored nine books, four of which he co-wrote with his lovely wife candy. the u.s. news media group and harvard center for public leadership have named him among america's best leaders. dr. carson and his wife co-founded the carson scholar fund which recognizes young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments. the fund is operating in 50 states and is recognized more than 7,300 scholars awarded more than 7.3 million in scholarships and installed more than 150 ben carson reading rooms around the country. born in detroit to a single mother with a third grade education who worked multiple jobs to support their family, secretary carson was raised to love reading and education.

he graduated from yale university and earned his doctorate of medicine from the university of michigan medical school. he and his wife are the proud parents of three adult sons and three grandchildren. ladies and gentlemen, would you join me in giving a real warm faith and freedom welcome to secretary ben carson. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. it's great to be here amongst fellow believers. and i appreciate very much the invitation from ralph reed who has worked for decades to try to bring some civil discourse and some faith into our capital here. you know, i think that faith

without freedom leads to intolerance and tyranny. and freedom without faith leads to neither one of them. you won't have anything if you do that. and, you know, the faith is the thing that i think really makes us concentrate on doing the right thing. but the faith is also the thing that gives us our freedom. and i think about my own career, i think back to a case where a young man -- a young man four years old was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor. and he ended up at johns hopkins. and, you know, i looked at the studies and i said this is inoperable. i agree with everybody else. everybody else looked at it and agreed it was inoperable.

but the faith of that family was just overwhelming. and they said, doctor, the lord is going to heal our self. he's going to use you to do it. and i said, yeah, right. [ laughing ] >> but, you know, they were so persistent, i finally agreed to do a biopsy and open them up and found there was a horrible tumor. it came back high grade myeloma. i closed him back up. unfortunately there's nothing we're going to be able to do about that. but only god understands why a person is here and how long they need to be here and will understand it better by all of the things we always tell people. and they said, doctor, the lord is going to heal our son. and i looked at them and never seen anybody to have that degree of faith. fully expecting him to

deteriorate and die, he started getting better. his eyes which had been looking in different directions suddenly were looking in the same direction. he was able to handle the secretions. i said let's do another scan and there was still a big ugly tumor but a little ribbon of tissue in the corner. i said maybe we should go back in and look and we did. and peeled that tumor away layer to layer until i got to the last layer. there was the brain stem. smashed and displaced but intact. long story short, that little boy walked out of the hospital and today is a minister. [ cheers and applause ] >> but one of the oncologists who was involved in that case said to me, ben, i've always been an atheist. but now i'm a believer. but it was really for me because, see, i thought i was doing all of this stuff. i thought i was this incredible

surgeon who was doing all this great stuff. and, you know, i realized at that point it was god. it was god all along. and i just said, lord, you be the neuro surgeon and i'll be the hand. that's where we get the gift of hand from. it was a gift from him. and that gave me the freedom to take on all kinds of cases. i wouldn't have had that freedom without faith that he gave me through that particular endeavor. that's the thing that makes a difference that i would have never thought i would end up in government. that's the last place i would have thought. [ applause ] >> you tell me that i would have told you, you're nuts. but, of course, the lord guides in different ways. and, you know, when i was asked to be the key note speaker for the national prayer in 2013, i

thought that was kind of strange because i had been asked to do it in 1997 and i wasn't sure that anybody ever did it twice. then i found out there was one person who did it twice. and that was billy graham. and i said, well, that's pretty good company. [ laughing ] >> so, you know, i decided to do it. i didn't know what i was going to say until the day of the speech. but obviously it resonated with so many people. and after that everybody was saying you should run for president. i said, come on, give me a break. i said, you know, if i just ignore it, it will go away. but every place i went, there were signs run, ben, run. it just kept mounting. and i said, lord, this is ridiculous. i said how can i run for president. i don't have all the things that people run for president have. a rolodex. all of the connections. and all of the money. i can't run for president just out of the blue. i said if you want me to really run for president, you need to

supply all those things. next thing i know, i had an organization. we had so much money. we were making -- pulling in more money than the rnc. i mean, it was amazing. [ laughing ] >> and when i finally dropped out and endorsed donald trump, you know, i had to beg people to stop sending money. that was never -- it was never an issue. but it turned out that i ended up where i believe the lord wanted me. because when i was a neuro surgeon, i was also on the board of kellogg for 18 years. costco for 16 years. and had a lot of other experiences that i used to question. i said, lord, neurosurgeons don't do this kind of stuff. why am i doing this? but then i understood fully ending up head of a large government agency because you

need all of those skills in terms of management of people. in terms of understanding financials and things of that nature. and the lord never asked you to do anything that he doesn't prepare you for. and that he doesn't give you the resources for to do. [ applause ] >> and, you know, these days we get accused of many things. subject of fake stories written in such a way that the venom is dripping off the pages. there's so much hate out there. i actually find a lot of this stuff quite amusing. i mean, like this furniture stuff. i mean, there is probably no one on earth that cares less about furniture than i do. and probably no one is more thrifty than my wife. but they needed that narrative. just a bunch of craziness. but the people in this room really should play no part in getting caught up in all of the

partisan hatred. you know, somebody has to be the adult. and, you know, i think that probably should be the christians out there. [ applause ] >> i'll tell you where i'm coming from. i'm speaking about all of those individuals and the many families out there that are struggling. and we must be able to look at them in a compassionate and yet very responsible way. and i've been traveling around the country listening to a lot of different groups. and in one group, a young lady stood up. she was very angry that it had taken the housing authority so long to find her a five bedroom apartment. so she had all of these children. and she was even more angry because the dining room set had

a scratch on the table. but, you know, as i was thinking about that. i said this young woman probably has never known any other life. her mother probably left her and her grandmother probably left her and she probably doesn't even understand what is out there and what the american dream is all about. and that's one of the reasons that you'll see from the new hud such an emphasis on self sufficiency. [ applause ] >> because i think that is real compassion is getting people out of poverty. helping them to find the pathway. and it's a double win.

because for each person you get out of that dpent -- dependent situation, it's one less person you have to pay for and one more tax paying citizen of the society. so this is the way we have to begin to think about these things. [ applause ] >> and, you know, that's the reason, you know, we're now engaging in the discussions about rent reform and putting in some policies that actually work. you know, for instance, instead of assessing a person's income annually, assessing it every three years. because their rent when you're in government assistance is based on the amount of money you make. and the system now has all of these rules. so if you're working a job and you're offered a raise, you may well not take it because now that your income goes up, your rent goes up. you certainly aren't going to want to get married to somebody who has an income. because now your rent goes way up or you may lose your

apartment altogether. and all these kinds of perverse incentives we built into the system. and i actually believe that a lot of people who are stagnant in these systems if we create the right environment would be happy to get a job and to use the talent that god has given them. we have to provide that opportunity for them. [ applause ] >> and that's one of the reasons that we've come up with the envision center concept. if you looked at the news yesterday, you probably saw we were in detroit opening the very first envision centers. where does that come from? from the bible. there is a verse in proverbs 29:18 without a vision people perish. we changed it to envision

center. so they're a place that brings the need in juxtaposition with the resources. we have a lot of resources in our country. and we have a lot of generous, compassionate people who would love to help. but we don't have a good mechanism for mirroring those two things. and now we do. and that's what the whole process is all about. we're already beginning to see results from it. but we're going to be measuring the metrics very carefully, because i do believe in data and in doing things based upon things that we know that actually work. >> yes. [ applause ] >> and also one of the things that i've seen work around the country is public private partnerships. see, the government itself doesn't have enough money to do everything that needs to be done. but the private sector does. and it was never the

government's job to do a lot of the things that we're doing now. >> that's right. >> but when the government acts in conjunction with the private sector, it's amazing what can be done. and you look how responsive the economy is to correct philosophies. there are those who say that the economy is naturally cyclical. it goes up and down. up and down. that's just the way it works. i don't believe that. i believe that what is cyclical is the kind of leadership we have. do we have people who understand how the economy works? and then we have people who don't understand how it works. [ applause ] >> right now we do have people that understand how it works. and you look at some of the opportunities that that presents for us. like with the new tax cut plan

and jobs plan. opportunity zones will be in the less economic areas and when we combine those with the red program and the low income housing tax credits and with other aspects of the private sector, we can now build the communities. we look at a place like the eastlake community in atlanta. worse crime. a completely redone neighborhood including two charter schools that are now achieving at the highest levels in the state better than the private school. . . .

that's what can happen when we the american people are willing to work together when we don't allow ourselves to be manipulated and told we are enemies. we are not enemies. the people who are enemies of the once were trying to divide us and manipulate us. we're called the united states of america for a reason, and one of the reasons that we accelerated so quickly to the pentacle of the world is because we were people who have faith. we work people who have beliefs and principles. and godly principles are in no way antithetical to government. [applause] you look at our founding documents, declaration of independence. talk about certain rights given to us by our creator, a.k.a. god.

the pledge of allegiance to the flag because we are one nation under god. any courtrooms on the wall it says in god we trust. every coin in your pocket says in god we trust. if it's in our founding documents, and our pledge its in our courts and it's on our money, but we're not supposed to talk about it. what in the world is that? that's called schizophrenia. we need to make sure that anyone knows it's okay to live by godly principles. up loving your fellow man, caring about your neighborhood, develop your god-given talents so you become palatable to the people around you, having value and principles that govern your life. if we do that, not only will make america great again but we will have one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you so much. [applause] ♪

♪ >> don't you love it? godly principles are in no way antithetical to good governance. can hardly say it better. and speaking of barely say better, indivisible, so tonight at the museum of the bible, can anybody tell me the name of the movie we will be watching tonight at, lo and behold, there you go. so we are actually not only will be segue into the breakout panel i just mentioned earlier today, feel free to grab a refreshment if you need and just take it on into the room and nobody will stop you from doing that. we will have a breakout session. at 3:30 p.m. we will have buses leaving from the front of the

hotel had over to museum of the bible. if you have a ticket you can get tickets from the top back at the registration desk. we have a few remaining tickets for the event for tonight. feel free to get that ticket. when you get to the museum of the bible, you should probably come , we later about 3:30, we'll get there about four, or 15 right next to the capital. that will give us two hours to go make our way through the museum itself which by the way it is an incredible museum not only is it, i mean the subject matter of course is incredibly inspirational and educational bridges the museum itself is, my wife, my sweet wife he was here as a background in museums and assigning kind of in running museums, she walked in and said, just one of the best museums on a planet that have ever been to. she's worked at some of the

best. incredible place, great opportunity not only to see the museum first early, late afternoon and then we will start is the reception from six to about 6:30 p.m. at our program will start at 6:30 p.m. congressman loudermilk, great guy, will visit with us and it also arthur brooks, doctor arthur brooks and will of music to start off with a wonderful lady named a thompson who is really going to move and inspire us later on tonight. then we watch this movie new indivisible. thank you so much for being with us this morning and god bless you and we'll see an breakout sessions and then over at the museum of the bible later on tonight. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> as this takes a break a quick reminder that tamara vice president pence will speak at the faith and freedom coalition conference in washington to glide coverage starts at 6 p.m. eastern on