mark zuckerberg was the next week about his company's libra crypto currency project. we'll take questions from members of the house financial services committee. that's live wednesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span 3. a reminder can you also watch online at c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. the family research council held its annual values voter summit last week. among the speakers were north carolina republican congressman mark meadows, usaid administrator mark green and he is basston gorka, former deputy assistant to president trump. ♪ welcome to the 2019 values voter summit.

it is great to see each and every one of you, from all parts of our country. we're so glad you're here. on behalf of all the sponsors i want to welcome you to the largest gathering of advantage g -- evangelicals, god-fearing patriots or whatever they want to call us. [ laughter ] in fact, they can call us whatever they want because it doesn't matter. [ applause ] we will not be deterred in our mission to pray, to vote, and to stand together. [ applause ] in fact, i think this weekend it is vitally important that we send a clear message to those that there are those of us who are not going anywhere. we're not going to wave a white flag, surrender on the great moral issues of our day, no matter how many lawsuits they file. no matter how many

investigations they launch. no matter how many threats they make to take our tax exemption for believing the bible. we have counted the cost. we will not bow. we're committed to stand. [ cheers and applause ] and with that, allow me to set the stage for the 2019 values voter summit. as you'll see, we're literally setting the stage. [ laughter ] it goes without saying that there is a battle for the heart and the soul of our nation. it is a battle that transcends politics and parties. it is no longer a skirmish between conservatives and liberals. it is an epic battle between two

ideologies, two world views. we must pray like we've never prayed before. we must vote. mention we must be involved in every level of government. governor of pennsylvania said as governments are made and moved by men so by them they are ruined. therefore governments depend upon men rather than men upon governments. we must move government in the right way. [ applause ] we must stand. there is an all out effort to discourage, to disappoint and dissuade you and other conservatives. the reports from the media would suggest that your labor has been

in vain. well, as you will see this weekend, that could not be farther from the truth. you are making a difference. [ applause ] do not grow weary. for in time you shall reap. earlier this year on the anniversary of the infamous roe v wade decision to a backdrop of great fan fare with the world trade center lit in pink the new york governor, andrew cuomo signed new york's so-called reproductive health care bill or more accurately the birthday abortion bill into law. opening the door to infanticide in america. the response was quick. president trump addressed it head on in his state of the union address saying lawmakers in new york cheered on the

passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from a mother's womb opinions from birth who will never get a chance to share their love and dreams with the world. he went on to say let us work together to build a culture thatcherishes innocent life and reaffirm a fundamental truth all children born and unborn are made in the holy image of god. [ applause ] >> leadership matters. states responded and planned parenthood lamented as a near record number of pro life laws were passed in the states this year, 58 new pro life laws, many aimed at ending birthday abortions. [ applause ]

now, at the urging of the president, congress attempted to pass a ban on birthday abortions with senator ben sasse and congresswoman ann wagner leading the way but they've been blocked. in fact, house republicans have attempted more than 80 times to vote on born alive abortion survivor's protection act only to be blocked by speaker pelosi and her party. and that's why we've teamed up with the pro life caucus in the house to help pass a discharge petition that will force congress to stand on the side of life or on the side of death. [ applause ] we are working to pass a discharge petition so that there will be a vote on the house floor on the born alive abortion survivor's protection act. at present there are 203 members that have signed the discharge petition, 218 are needed.

to aid in this effort we launched the end birthday abortion campaign. how many of you have already participated in that campaign? our goal is to take 90,000 of these newborn thermal pink and blue baby hats to nancy pelosi and deliver them to her on capitol hill. [ applause ] babies should be welcomed into the world, and protected under our laws. and we're going to send an undeniable visible message when we cart all 90,000 baby hats to capitol hill. now, right now our campaign we're over halfway. this represents about 50,000 hats that we've collected in this campaign. many, many americans have given $9 to not only purchase one of these hats but to fuel the

campaign to get to 218 signatures necessary to vote on this bill. we are going to send a message that america demands that we end birthday abortions. [ applause ] i invite you, i invite you to join with us this weekend and support the end of birthday aboring campaign and stop infanticide in america. when we stop instanticide we'll continue the march for life until every child born and unborn is welcomed into this world and protected under our laws the. [ applause ] with that, it is now my honor to officially open the 2019 session

of the values voter summit. [ cheers and applause ] have a wonderful weekend. [ applause ] ♪ >> announcer: now ladies and gentlemen please welcome the executive director of the truth and liberty coalition general counsel of andrew womack ministries, richard harris. ♪ >> good morning. it's my distinct honor to introduce our next speaker this morning, the honorable mark meadows, republican from north carolina. [ cheers and applause ] a true freedom fighter in the united states congress, mark meadows is serving his fourth

term representing north carolina's 11th district since january of 2013. meadows ran for congress after accumulating nearly 30 years of work experience as a small businessman creating growth and value by specializing in start ups and business re-organization. during his time in the house meadows has been a known champion for fiscal responsibility, accountable government, pro growth economic policies, pro family and pro life initiatives and a strong military. both democrats and republicans alike repower to him as a great leader, a listener, and someone who doesn't back down from a fight. as a result after just a few years in washington meadows has risen to be one of the most influential members of congress in november of 2016 he was elected as the chairman of the house freedom caucus, an influential group found in january of 2015. consisting of roughly 40 conservative members of congress

dedicated to giving a voice to those who feel forgotten by their government. he was re-elected as caucus chairman in 2019 and led the group through numerous high-profile legislative battles including health care reform and tax reform and several commentators the organization as a group with new clout. he served two consecutive terms as house oversight on government operations. with oversight jurisdiction over federal agencies including the executive office of the president, and others. he served three terms as member of the house foreign affairs committee with expertise in the middle east and north africa and he's been recognized numerous times for his support of israel, including leadership of bipartisan change to condemn the united nations anti-israel record. meadows leadership on capitol hill has been recognized by the american conservative union, the

national federation of independent businesses, the national rifle association, the u.s. chamber of commerce, the national taxpayer union, the military officers association of america, the nature conservatory, the national retail federation and on and on. above all, meadows is a deeply committed christian. and someone who has demonstrated a devotion to his faith even in the highest pressure environments. one of his proudest accomplishments to date was his role in helping secure the release of miriam, an individual who had been impry second by the sudanese government for pragmatic her christian faith. he and his wife have two adult children. please join me in welcoming congressman mark meadows. ♪ >> thank you. thank you. please, take your seat.

god bless you. it is great to be with you. thank you for that welcome. i normally do not get a welcome like that in washington, d.c. [ laughter ] you know, we're here to tell a little bit of the truth about what is going on. and i'm having to leave right after this and go and do an interview with an ambassador that was relieved of her duty as part of the adam schiff impeachment effort. i think it's time we send adam schiff home instead of the president of the united states. what do you think? [ cheers ] i think it's time. you know, they love to do these things in secret. they love to actually have this secret way of trying to form a narrative to impeach this president, and the people of america spoke in november of

2016, and they spoke loudly that we need a change, we need to drain the swamp and president donald trump is doing exactly that. he is doing that. [ cheers and applause ] now, i've had the opportunity to be the chairman of the freedom caucus. now the freedom caucus, for some of you that don't know, you know, we actually started a small group of us that said we needed to get-together and, you know, hit a few patriots. you know patriots like congressman jim jordan from ohio. [ cheers and applause ] and i'm here today to let you know, i'm looking for his jacket. i know it is here somewhere. [ laughter ] jim is my best friend in congress. there is not a man who is willing to speak the truth in the face of adversity more than

jim jordan and if you're from ohio you're blessed to have him as a member of congress. [ applause ] but the freedom caucus was designed to give a voice to millions of americans who thought that washington, d.c. had forgotten them. now, i know that all of you who have been actively engaged and have truly sometimes put your life on hold, and by the way, these teleprompters they have nothing on them so i just want to let you know, this is not a barack obama speech. all right. [ laughter ] so if we -- you know, when you start to look at america and the fact that washington, d.c. has lost its way, it is time that we restore that. we need to have some kind of vaccination for the potomac fever.

[ laughter ] you know, it's amazing when members of congress and senators they get elected, you go out, you work hard, you try to make sure that they are going to make a difference. they get elected. they raise their right hand. they say they will defend the constitution. they will support your values. they come across the potomac river and they lose their mind. [ laughter ] all of a sudden they -- well i've said it here before i might as well say it again. you know, they have the back bone of a banana. [ laughter ] when you peel it back it gets real mushy. it is time that we elect people that have a back bone of steel and that are willing to stand up for the values that our god holds dear. [ applause ] now, they are trying to do all of this in secret, just a few miles from here this morning. in fact, they issued a subpoena just a few minutes ago to compel

the witness to come forward and actually testify. but they are not seeking truth. they are seeking a narrative. they are seeking a narrative that they've already written the final conclusion to because they started three years ago. even before this president was sworn in, they were talking about impeachment and they are bound and determined to do it and we need to send a clear message if they do it, we'll send them home. we need to send them. [ cheers and applause ] now, we are not taking this is itting down or even lying down. we're going to stay in the fight because of people like you that continue to encourage us to stay in the fight. and i can tell you, being a member of congress was never on my bucket list. [ laughter ] in fact, i can remember the time

that i felt like i was being called to, to actually run for congress and because it wasn't on my bucket list i was actually had a wonderful life in the mountains of western north carolina. i called my wife that particular day and i said, you know, honey, i feel like the lord is leading me to run for congress. and she said well honey if that's the way you are being led i'll support you in that. and then all of a sudden this sick feeling -- [ laughter ] -- came over me. because i didn't like to get up in front of people. i didn't like to be in the limelight. i just like to have a private life that actually, you know, really didn't involve coming and speaking before hundreds and thousands of people. so i got really this ill feeling, so ill that i had to pull over the car on the side of the road and throw up.

[ laughter ] but sometimes you're called to do something that brings you out of your comfort zone and many of you are here today because you're out of your comfort zone because you love this country and you believe it is worth fighting for. [ applause ] i thank you for that. i thank you for that. so you may have heard about a little resolution that's floating around. the new chair mapp of the freedom caucus, andy biggs who has taken over on october 1st has hit the ground running. he put forth a resolution that said we need to censure adam schiff for making up his opening testimony and it's time that we hold him accountable. [ cheers and applause ] it's time we hold him accountable. [ applause ] now there are 104 members that have signed on to that resolution, it's growing each and every day and if your member hasn't signed on you need the to call him and make him see the

light. and if they don't see the light you make them feel the heat. and if you will do that, i can tell you that those back bones that are like bananas start to stiffen up when they hear from hundreds if not thousands of people from back home. there's only one thing members of congress appear and that's voted out of office. there's only one group that can do that and that's you. it's time we hold our elected officials accountable. it's time. that resolution is being put forth and i can tell you right now when adam schiff starts to make up things, and this is being covered and so i'm sure it's being tweeted out right now, so let me just double down, when adam schiff makes up things it's time to call him out for making up things and actually make sure he's held accountable. it is time we hold him

accountable. [ cheers and applause ] now, i was in a transcribed interview the other day. we had ambassador kurt volker there and the democrats wanted to change the rules. what we want to make sure of is we have an unfair advantage. we want to make sure that -- well that's not changing the rules, is it? [ laughter ] but they wanted to make sure that the democrats staff, the majority staff in the house had more people in the room to be able to question the witness and that the republicans staff they didn't want the members of congress to ask questions so they said no member ever congress can ask questions. now, the last time i checked most of the people that, of the 435 in the house and 100 in the senate they are the only ones in washington, d.c. that were actually elected to represent the people. and yet somehow the democrats

felt like it was best to silence people like jim jordan. devon nunez. people who actually know this subject and so adam schiff was saying we don't want members to ask questions. well i can tell you that particular transcribed interview was going so poorly for the democrats after the third hour, adam schiff says well i'm going to break my own rule and i'll ask 25 minutes of questions. you don't hear any of that reported in the media. why? because they leak out the text messages to give a particular narrative that was not supported by the actual interview that we conducted for often hours. if they are about transparent circumstance let's be transparent. let's let the american people decide for themselves. what do you think? [ applause ] i'm also here to tell you that this president is the most pro

life president we've ever had in the history of our country, bar none. bar none. [ cheers and applause ] he's billiwilling to fight. and when a certain governor from virginia talked about that you need the to make someone comfortable before you murder them after they've been born this president saw that not only as offensive but morally wrong and called it out for what is it and that is murder. he is willing to stand with us on that issue. [ applause ] but i can also tell you that this president is serious about keeping his campaign promises. you know, early on in the administration i tell the story and i won't go through all the details today, but i was actually there in the oval

office. i got to go to the oval office. i know it comes as a shock to many of you. i was never invited there under the the previous administration. [ laughter ] but as i went there, there was a huge white board in this side room. just off the oval office. and in that, on that white board was every single campaign promise that he had made when he had made it and they were going down checking them off one by one. because this is a promise keeping president. [ applause ] he also works harder than anybody i've ever met. i mean he'll work all through the night. i mean there are phone calls that he makes in the middle of the night. he will oftentimes go on two or three hours of sleep. now we saw that last night.

he was in minneapolis. well there's one conservative front -- oh, three conservatives from minneapolis. but, you know what we had last night? was an arena full of conservatives who said that they want their government back as well. when they were there. and it was electrifying. we're talking about minnesota. we're not talking about alabama. and yet the same yearning for we the people to take control of what we do is alive in minnesota, in maine, in california, in new york, and in between and every where else, and if we allow that flame, that little flicker to start to grow into a huge blaze, not only will we win in 2020 but we'll win with landslide proportions in

spite of what the mainstream media and the polls will say today. and i think it's time that we put a little fodder on the fire. it's time. so, i just need to give you a little bit of the background. they've got these three nice monitors right here in front of me, and they have this big clock. i mean it is probably -- the clock has numbers that are maybe a foot tall. [ laughter ] that's good because i wear glasses. and most members of congress when it hits zero they give you their ten-point closing plan right about then. i'm not going to do that today. but i do want to share really from my heart and ask you for two things. one, a lot of people think that our nation will be healed by the policy that happens just a few

miles from here. i'm here to tell you our nation will be healed by committed believers and people on their knees before our heavenly father praying for our land each and every day. if you will pray, if you will pray, he will be faithful. and so i would ask you to pray for our nation. the second thing i would ask you to do is to pray and encourage this president. pray for him and encourage him because i can tell you the attacks that he's under -- i don't know how any person has ever been able to stand up to such attacks. i get concerned at times because the attacks are unrelenting. you would think that they would even have a day or two break and they just keep coming. and yet i can tell you that even the schemes of the democrats right now are not having an effect on this president or this country because ultimately he

has won priority. and that is to put the will of the people, your priorities first. unlike anybody else that i've ever seen. [ applause ] he truly has. he is. he's willing to do things that only other presidents have talked about, because and we know that. we can look no further than in jerusalem there is now an embassy where there was only a promise before. [ cheers and applause ] he made a commitment. he was consistent with that commitment. and he delivered on that commitment. and so it is with that same type of resolve that you're going to see this president run through the finished tape in november of 2020. when we have four more years to

actually turn this country back to its rightful owner which is we the people. [ applause ] this president and the first lady are willing to sacrifice so much so that we can truly live in a one nation under god. i want to share this personal story in all humility. i'm a nobody from nowhere. i really am. i mean, you know, if you were trying to figure out if this guy was ever going to be a member of congress, the betting odds were not good. not that you should be betting. [ laughter ] and yet debbie and i had the

opportunity to attend this state dinner in honor of the australian prime minister here just a few weeks ago. and we went and, you know, as anybody who has ever been honored to go to a state dinner, you feel privileged just to be invited and i looked around and i kept saying well, honey, what are you and i doing here. and i share that not share the fact that we were there but to share the fact that the first lady and the president made a decision. it was unbelievable. we had military bands from all banks of the service, violins. but they made a determination to sing and play "the battle hymn

of the republic." if you know that it brings the sense of pride and sometimes a few tears. they could have left out a verse. and one of those verses really talked about christ being born across the seas. and yet they made the decision to make a strong statement, not just to the visitors that were there, not just to the diplomats that were there, but really to the nation at large. that, indeed, we are a nation that is endowed by our creator. with certain unalienable rights that are god given. and to recognize that. and to see that. brought tears to my eyes. it was one of the those times when, as we were finishing up with that "battle hymn of the

republic" and him dying for us and some of our sons and daughters dying for freedom. there's calling on each one of us. and i share that because this president and first lady, against all odds are willing to stand in the gap, to stand shoulder to shoulder with each one of you and believe that we're a country that once again can be god fearing and god honoring. thank you, god bless you. thank you for allowing me to come and be a part of the team. god bless you. thank you. i love you. we love you. ♪

thank you, mark. aren't you glad he's on our side? amen. hey, folks, just a quick word before we move on to a very impressive panel i know you'll love. i want to follow up on the campaign that tony perkins referenced before. if you would like to participate and purchase a baby hat, or a hundred ever them or a thousand ever them to present to nancy pelosi, we want to give you that opportunity that you can be a part of that. in fact, we'll be tracking that. let's see i'm not able to see that in front of me, the monitor where we're showing. is that gooded you all see that. we're going to be keeping track. our goal is 10,000 hats during the values voter summit. can we do it? absolutely we can do it. and for you to do it, we have a hash tag that you can take advantage of. i can't see it but i think you can. that's how you can make a donation, if you need any help

we'll be happy to help you. go to the registration desk. they can help you do that. buy a hat, buy hundred hats. be a part of this campaign. we'll keep you posted how that's going. this will encourage you. we want to share with you the state of life in america and how leaders across the country are building a movement of victories. let's all take a look at the monitors now. ♪ >> governor cooper, vetoed a controversial abortion bill. the vote alive bill would have required medical practitioners to treat infants from botched procedures as well lregular pat. >> today with the passage of the missouri stand for unborn act i can guarantee you this that the voice of the unborn in our state will be heard loud and clear.

>> republicans in both michigan senate and house passed a bill to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure. it is referred as dismemberment bill. the governor is expected to veto the bill. >> the louisiana house passed a bill relaxistricting abortions. the bill would ban abortions once a fetal heart beat is detected. it is expected to be signed by the governor. >> the indiana senate voted 38-10 in favor of the bill that would ban a commonly used second-trimester procedure known asmemb dismemberment abortion.

>> and now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our panel and our moderator, vice president of frc action. ♪ >> good morning. i appreciate the opportunity to moderate this panel with you this morning on such an important topic and we have seen so much action. there have been so many developments on the life issue over the past 12 months. many of you will recall laws like the extreme abortion bill that was passed by the legislature in the state of new york and some other states. we recall the comments of virginia governor on infanticide. here we have the born alive survivor's protection act introduced at the federal level. you'll hear more about that later today. more recently just in september

the family of the late abortion provider dr. oreck discovered over 2,000 unborn children in plastic bags in his garage. this shocking tragedy serves as a reminder of the pressing need to have their dignity recognized. also recently the supreme court just agreed the to hear the june medical services versus g. this is the biggest abortion case in years and first big abortion case the supreme court has accepted since president trump filled two seats with justices gorsch and kavanaugh on the supreme court. we are very hopeful that the supreme court will affirm the 5th circuit and uphold louisiana's ability to protect women and this could be a significant ruling on behalf of the unborn. all that to say in recent months we've seen this issue at center stage many times. sometimes in good ways. sometimes in bad ways. but every single time there have

been state legislators like the ones on our panel this morning who have stood up and stayed we're going to do something about this. we are going to stand for the unborn. a couple of numbers i would like to share you really quick. just this year in 2019 there have been 36 pro life laws support by frc action that have been signed into law in over the last nine years we have seen one-third of all of the pro life laws that have been enacted since roe v. wade one of those that happened over the last nine years. i think those are some things we can get excited about. [ applause ] on our panel this morning we have both republicans and democrats represented on this important issue showing that the issue really transcends party lines. and they have stood up to send a clear message. we are standing for the unborn. we are winning hearts and minds and we're building an american

future that is pro life. with that i would like to introduce your panelists this morning. first we have senator jessica de la cruz of long island representing the state's 23rd district. she is a first generation american born to portuguese immigrants, self-employed and lives in north smithfield with her husband and three children. she's a political newcomer having been elected last fall and beginning her term as a freshman senator in january of this year. she stepped into public service after years of civic engagement and activism working to restore faithfulness to united states and rhode island constitutions. she serves on the cincinnati committee on labor and judiciary. in the 2019 session she actively opposed and voted against senate bill s 152 a bill that

dramaticatly expanded abortion access while weakening public protection under the guise of protecting roe v. wade. please join me welcoming senator de la cruz. [ applause ] >> next we have katrina jackson who is both an attorney and state representative representing the louisiana's 16th district and i also understand senator-elect now. congratulations on that. [ cheers and applause ] she was first elected in 2011. she serves on numerous committees and chair of the house committee on judiciary known as a tough negotiator. she hasn't shied away from leadership and a fighter for values and her constituents. at home you find her fighting for clients in criminal and civil law cases and educating

and listening to her constituents. she received the defend of life award for 2014 legislative session. katrina attributes her accomplishments to not just having a dream, but having a dream that winds up with god's plan for her life. every day she works to allow god to guide her in the process realizing that dream. please join me in welcoming representative jackson. [ applause ] and lastly we have state representative pat from north carolina. she represents north carolina's 13th house district. she was first elected in 2007 and she serves as vice chair mapp of the north carolina house appropriations committee as well as chairman of the appropriations, agriculture and natural and economic resources committee and the environment committee. among other achievements she was

awarded the north carolina right to life pro life legislative excellence award in 2011 in the north carolina advocacy award in 2016. she's also a member of the national pro life women's caucus. she has been married for 53 years to her retired marine colonel roger and has two children and two grandchildren. please join me in welcoming representative pat. [ applause ] i would like to jump right in with the panel here. senator de la cruz, if i could start with you and work our way on down the table. first question, i'm wondering if you could tell us your story personally. why is this issue, the issue of defending the unborn, the pro life issue, why is this so important to you and what led you to get involved with this? >> well, for me it's a no brainer. we have the right to life,

liberty and pursuit of happiness and when i think, you know, bark on history and great civil rights moments of our times i think of william overforce how he fought to stop the slave trade and how it was the great injustice of their time. the great injustice of our time is the abortion issue. [ applause ] thank you. you know, i always think what's next? it's always a slippery slope. it's never, we're not just going to stop at abortion. what's next? are we talking about disabled individuals? elderly individuals? individuals that are sick? who decides who lives and who dies. i think that when i look back at what's happening in rhode island, planned parenthood, the women's project they are not happy with just obtaining abortion on demand. they are going take it further..

>> it's innocent for me. god hates the shed of innocent blood. [ applause ] i always said whatever god hated, katrina jackson was going to hate too. this was not a political issue for me. it was not based on a party. it was based on my christianity. i believe it's an injustice. when i talk to people who don't understand that or who do not identify with the sovereign god that we serve, i tell them all the time well someone chose you. if you were born after roe v wade someone chose you. wouldn't you want us to fight for you. i fight for the unborn but i

fight for you as well because someone had a choice not choose you and there should never be a time where someone other than god should determine whether or not your born. [ applause ] so it's just that simple. that's why i'm pro life and always will be. >> thank you. >> thank you. mine is a little different. i grew up in a christian family in oklahoma, originally. and we never even heard the word abortion. we had no idea what aboring was. even as a young mother of two, my husband was a marine. we were at paris island, south carolina, and some roe v wade passed and one of my friends said something about abortion, and i started reading more about it. didn't understand it. but read that it was only a

piece of tissue. it wasn't a baby. so didn't think much more about it until we moved to camp lejeurne with my husband who was in the military. i was doing my practical, i was getting a degree in medical lab technology. and we went to the hospital to do our, to do our practical. when i did i was on a break one day and went into the pathology laboratory to visit with the pathologist. we just moved into north carolina and from the person that laughed about north carolina or clapd a while ago you know about pig picking in north carolina so my mind was kind of focused on pigs. but the saddest part is when i went in there, i looked around

just glanced around in the pathology be lab and i saw buckets, and buckets with little pink flesh in there. i thought they were little pigs. i truly did. i said what are you doing with all these little pigs in here. he said pat look again that's the weekend's abortions. they are babies. little babies bodies were so burned because it was in the late '70s. they were doing abortions with saline and we would have to do blood gases on them, try to keep them alive as much as we could. there were stories from nurses where the doctor, if they were born alive he would try to turn them over in the saline. there was no firsthand knowledge about this but these stories were from nurses that worked in there. many nurses stopped working for him. he continued on many years in

the abortion industry. i don't even like to call him a doctor. i call him abortionists. doctors are for saving lives. [ applause ] from that moment on, i realized this was not a piece of tissue. girls were hitchhiking down from new york to come to jacksonville, north carolina, home of the marine corps and the home of the biggest abortionist in the nation. he got shut down by the irs a few years ago. we couldn't do anything to shut him down. there were pickets. all kinds of things. he did stop doing the late term abortions, we think but he got shut down by the irs. so that's one thing about the irs i like. [ laughter ] [ applause ] but from that point on i decided

that i would be a pro life advocate. [ applause ] so i dedicated by life in the legislature, i'm going run one more term. there's some legislation we haven't been able to finish because we have a governor who is not pro-life and vetoed everything we've done so we're going to work on that legislation. i've dedicated my next term if i'm re-elected to make sure we do everything we can to save those babies lives. [ applause ] >> thank you so much for that. next question for you all. we saw that video of the map with a lot of legislative developments not all of them across the country. in all of your states in recent months over this past year, so there have been some significant things happening at the

legislative level on this issue specifically. so could you unpack that specifically for us, what action has the legislature been doing and what has your role been in that. senator de la cruz. >> i wanted to write them down because the legislation did several things. first it eliminated any meaningful restrictions on post-viability. now abortions can be performed for five reasons. health undefined which could really include mental health, family health, economic health. also any penalties for experimenting on human fetuses. one of the -- one of the pieces of the legislation also diminished the role of the department of health and making site that the department of health couldn't adopt abortion specific health and safety

regulations. i submitted an amendment in which would clear up the language so that those standards could be adopted. so i called the department of health and i said i would like the last ten years of like the t 10 years of inspections for planned parenthood. she said there is only two. they are supposed to be inspected every year. on the floor, i said planned parenthood's motto used to be safe, legal and rare. can we really call it legal if we're putting language into our legislation that prevents the inspection of a facility that performs surgical and chemical procedures? can we really say we care about women when restaurants are held to a higher standard of clean leness. is it true that mcdonald's is held to a higher standard than these clinics? it just comes to the point where it's just legal.

unfortunately, my amendment did not pass, but i will continue to fight for this legislation. what did the legislature do? it was unprecedented what the senate did. we had two bills in the house and the senate bill which mirrored each other. the first time the senate bill died 5-4 in committee. and then they made minor tweaks in which they said were substantial changes which were not and the house bill was brought back. there were enough votes again to kill that bill in committee. and seconds before an up or down vote, they decided to switch it to another committee. what happened was they didn't have the votes so come hell or

high water, they were going to make sure that that bill was sent to health and human services. and where seven of the nine members were self-professed liberals or progressives. so we have a fight in rhode island. elections have consequences. we need to hold our elected officials accountable. >> louisiana hails as the number one pro life in the union. so in louisiana it doesn't matter if you're democrat or republican, two thirds of our legislature are pro life. we have been able to push very meaningful legislation. we just had the heart beat bill with no exceptions besides the health of the life of the

mother. governor edwards signed it into law three or four months ago. we have an overwhelming supermajority vote in favor of that bill in both chambers. we also have the love life amendment. we call it the love life amendment. that was my bill that i authored working with the family research council and everyone else which is going to give our voters for the first time an opportunity to vote on whether louisiana is pro life. it will put language in our constitution that says louisiana is a pro-life state. so we're very excited about that m that. and that comes up during the 2020 presidential election. you want to learn more about that amendment. the website is

lovelifevoteyes.com. and so we are pushing efforts right now to make sure our constituency is informed and ready to vote in 2020 to place that into our constitution. also, i authored the privileges bill. in our state it was upheld by the fifth circuit. we just heard that it is going to be heard at the united states supreme court. so we are prepping for those arguments and waiting on a date. but what louisiana has done is we understand until it is overturned that row versus wade is the law. what we have done over the last 20, 30, 40 years was pass meaningful legislation that placed every restriction on abortion that we could. a lot of those laws have been upheld. we have the 24 hour waiting

period. of course, with the heart beat bill, ours doesn't go into effect until mississippi goes into effect. we put a provision in the law because we are litigating a number of cases that i just mentioned. we partnered with our neighboring state to litigate that issue. when they litigate it, whatever the outcome is for theirs, that will be the outcome of ours. every year in the state of louisiana we come together doesn't matter black, white, democrat or republican or from a rural area or urban area, we come together as a super majority of the legislature with a democratic governor who is pro life. and we pass legislation that saves lives. and we do it not ignoring our constituency but educating and bringing them along with us. that's why the love life amendment for us is so important, because thauv rr always said in the national media you've done it as a

legislature. how do your constituents feel about it? we know our constituents are pro life. so for the first time in 2020, they'll get to say that. and when we are talking about it and on the floor, we say we advocate for those back home. in 2020, they'll advocate with us. it will be resounding in louisiana constitution that louisiana, it's constituents are prolife. [ cheers and applause [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. when i came in the republicans were in the minority. in 2010, we actually got a governor, a house and a senate that were conservative republicans for the first time in 140 years. [ applause ]

>> we decided as quickly as we could as long as we have that kind of a majority in both chambers and also the governor. there was nothing stopping us. so we started out doing a woman's right to know. and that was just a simple bill that says if a woman wants to see the ultrasound, she should be able to see it. what was really ridiculous is we required them to have them, but they were never -- the abortionist was never required to show them to the mother. we know why they didn't know -- because they would see it is a baby. it is not a piece of tissue. it is not a cell that's growing. it is a baby. that actually with the 72-hour wait law that we have saved about 3,500 babies a year, because they would go to the pregnancy centers to get the

ultrasound, counseling there, help there to raise their children singly or adoption and get the counseling they need, jobs, financial support, the things that the pregnancy centers do. we don't just take them in and tell them, you know, let's kill your baby, that's the easiest way out. because that's what planned parenthood does. i'm not afraid to say it. that's what planned parenthood does. it's all about the money. planned parenthood is all about the money. well, we now have a governor of a different party. we don't have supermajorities in the house or the senate, so he says what can we do that this governor won't veto. so we decided to do the same thing that they did at the federal level, just mimic that bill almost 100%. that was the survivors protection act. we got a bipartisan bill.

we got five democrats to vote with us. and the governor vetoed it. the governor vetoed it. all the bill said is that you have to give the same protection to a baby that's born from an abortion that you give to a baby that is born from any other procedure at the same gestational age. don't throw them on a table. don't put them in a closet. we've heard stories. you'll hear from claire today and others maybe today or tomorrow, others who are survivors of abortions, that it is happening now. it is not from 40 years ago my story. it is happening now. they are putting them in closets. they are turning them over in a wet solution, whatever, anything and not paying any attention to them. and they are having their last

breaths without anyone caring for them. so how we got this bill passed, it started in the senate, a great friend of mine. she should be here rather than me. she was the one that took the lead on this. we have a house version of it too. we were going to take the lead on a couple of other dismemberment bills.

we asked god to guide us in every bit of this effort. we were successful in getting it passed. the governor is the one who has it on his heart now that babies will die in north carolina that may not have had to die. and so our other two pieces of pro life legislation, we know they will probably be vetoed. we are sitting on them for a while. we did not have enough of the democrats that voted with us to go for the override. we were lacking one. we did vote to override it, but we lacked that one vote. we had pro life rallies, everybody praying, but the governor and his political talk with them about he actually

would sit somewhat across from them and say this is who i'm running against you if you vote to override the veto. so like i say as the governor in virginia, the governor in north carolina has this on his hands now. >> we have three very different scenarios here. we have senator delacruz, representative jackson, you have been able to get good life legislation passed. and then representative, the legislature was able to get a good bill passed, but the governor vetoed it. this issue plays itself out in different ways in each state. looking at this through your eyes, the eyes of legislators leading on the front lines here, could you tell us what's next for the pro life movement in your state as a whole

understanding this is a long-term effort. success doesn't always happen overnight. what's next for the movement in your state there? what encouragement would you give to people to get them involved? >> we can't stop the fight. i know that sometimes when we look at blue states, we say that's that. we're not going to bother with our time there or our resources. we can't give up. we can decide to move to a red state or a state that is more pro life. what we need to do is entrench ourselves where we are and we need to fight for where we live. i grew up and around all my life i can't imagine myself anywhere else. i want my children to grow up in a state in which we respect life. and i would tell you that as a political newcomer, i never expected to run for office. i was never -- i never aspired to be a politician.

in fact, when someone approached me i said politics is dirty. she said in order to make a change, you need to get involved. and you can go to all the rallies and advocate, but if you're not in the room where it happens, then you're really not as effective as you could be. if you can run for office, run for office. if you cannot run for office, support a candidate that you know is on the right side of life. when it comes down tait, i would look at candidates and see the candidate as a whole. and then i came to the realization that if a candidate is not on the right side of life, can i trust them to make any other decision? probably not. so if you can't run for office either support a candidate either financially or follow

them on facebook, comment on their posts, share it. if you are not on social media, you can hold a sign at a polling location. you can host a little get together fundraiser for that candidate. whatever you can do, you can do something, and you need to be very active in the political realm. >> thank you. >> what's next for myself and louisiana is we will continue to push to advocating to women's health. i encourage for people to advocate for women's health. i first explained that row versus wade should be overturned. we understand where the supreme court is, but it did not say we could not legislate in the areas of abortion and women's health. it was an advocacy for women's health, because in louisiana,

every other surgical center regardless of how modern the procedure -- we're not lowering standards for women's health in any area. that's what's next for us. what we have been doing we will continue to push. advocacy was very important, taking the fight outside the state capitol, going into churches around our communities and talking to the pastors. i have attended church every sunday, sunday school. never heard abortion. i had heard that god hated the shedding of innocent blood. nobody in the church ever aligned it with the killing of babies. and so now we're reaching out to our pastors and advocating and now they're talking about it. so i imagine if that pro choice person had been sitting in a church since they were 1 and 2

years old and hearing that god hated abortion, i don't care what party or what race, what religious affiliation, if they had heard that, a party or a political machine would have never been able to convince them that abortion was right. so advocacy is so important. we're going to continue our legislation, but we're taking our fights back to the streets and encouraging advocacy at every level. you hear from the voice of elected officials, it needs to come from the voice of those that god has wanted to represent in him and come from the voice of babies. and that's what we're doing. thank you. we will go ahead and carry on with the pro life legislation that we introduced this year

which is the dismemberment bill and abortion pill reversal, a second chance at life. what we need to do more than anything is get a pro-life governor that will help us with this. and we have one who is our lieutenant governor. i will work very hard to get him in the governor's mansion. and he will work with us. and he will help us get heart beat bills, everything through that we can get through, because he is very pro life. what will you need to be doing in your homes and my constituents? i encourage them all, first of all, to pray, because without god's guidance we will never win this fight. he has to be leading us.

help your pregnancy centers whether it be financially -- hopefully you have pregnancy centers in your area to keep women from going to the abortion clinics. but if you can financially support them with your volunteer hours, that's very important. i wish that our state were totally pro life like louisiana as far as our legislature. north carolina is really a conservative state, but we have liberal -- very liberal legislators and a governor that just will not give into even conservative constituents. if they hear from you and hear from you, that's what they need to -- don't wait until a bill comes through. write them every day. send them a text and e-mail. let them know that you want pro life legislation to pass.

just love god and love those babies. >> that concludes our panel. i want to thank our participants for their leadership, their input and their leadership on such an important topic. so as we close, could we give them a round of applause and thanks? [ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemens, as much as i appreciate your applause, it is not necessary, but i am humbled. what a great panel that was and how encouraging it is for all of us that care about life.

let me remind you again that we would like to -- our goal is 10,000 baby hats this weekend. so let me put up a slide again on how you can make your donation. you can simply text baby 19 to 91999. if you need any assistance with that, you can go to the registration desk and our staff will be very happy to help you. that's our goal, 10,000 hats. in may of last year, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell appointed tony perkins to the u.s. commission on international religious freedom which is a nine-member bipartisan commission and it's designed to advance religious freedom globally. before we bring him out to the podium with a very impressive panel, once again, please look at the monitors as we look at

religious freedom successes under the trump administration. >> we are proud of our religious herita heritage. and as president, i will always protect religious liberty. today with one clear voice, the united states of america calls upon the nations of the world to end religious persecution. >> we gather today as people who believe in freedom of religion. >> we have a very important group of people standing along side of me. i'm honored to welcome pastor

and other survivors of religious persecution to the white house. >> and now, would you please welcome our panel and your moderator, family research council president tony perkins. ♪ good morning once again. it is great to be with you. great to see each and everyone of you. this is an important panel. i'm here not in my capacity as the chairman of the u.s. commission on international religious freedom. as much as this administration has done, i want to focus on domestic religious freedom here

in america today, the risk that it faces, the successes that we have seen and the courage that it's taken to defend it. that's what as i'm going to introduce our panelists this morning, you will see a common thread woven between them, different cases. we've got a butcher, baker, candle stick maker, but that wouldn't be absolutely correct. we have men and women of great courage that have stood up against the cultural tides and winds, and god has been faithful. i'm going to start with to my immediate left, retired from the united states air force. let us thank him for his serv e service. colonel, you were punished for not wanting to affirm same-sex

marriage by signing an appreciation certificate for a service member's spouse that was involved in one. it would seem everyone would be happy because the certificate was signed by someone else, actually a higher-ranking officer you had signed. they got exactly what they wanted. that wasn't enough. they came after you for refusing to do that. and i want you to share a little bit about your story, what you went through and then the outcome. >> sure. i appreciate the opportunity. so as the commander of an organization on the base, one of my subordinants was retiring and said as is customary, each individual receive a retirement certificate. often times, if they're married, the spouse also receives a certificate. and so when confronted with his certificate, no problem signing,

happy to do it. he was a great troop and often times one of my noncommissioned officers who whom i would consult frequently because he had good expertise. when asked to endorse -- that was a bridge too far. i could not sign it. my superior offered to sign my place. that was a great solution. i think the upshot of it all was that the nco decided to file a complaint, which was his right to do. i think the thing that we wrestle with in the military, though, and this is probably one of the things that we need to be mindful of is that when addressing something that is contrary to regulation, you're looking at the regulation. and it wasn't until it got to the secretary's level that we

began to balance policy against the constitution. that's where the conflict arose. talk about emotion. i think my wife bore a lot more of the brunt than i did. there was a little bit of angst. quite frankly, i think you mentioned courage. i don't know that there is -- i won't speak for everyone else, but conviction, i think, is what causes you to move in that direction. >> i want to talk about what was at stake here. you were close to retirement. there were those that wanted to push you out of the military. the retirement was at risk. >> i was up for promotion. that was kind of one of the things that upon you know, the initiation of the investigation, my superior took the move to not recommend me for promotion.

that was his way of communicating that there was an ongoing investigation and that he did not recommend me for promotion. his right to do that. i disagree with his approach. we had a good conversation about that. at the end of the day, though, in whose hands is it? is my promotion in his hands? maybe in a limited sense. is it in the board's hands that evaluates all of the promotion recommendations? to an extent. as i think we all understand, it's really in god's hands. whether god wanted to be promoted or not, that's his decision to make. i just know that i need to follow the convictions that i have. >> sometimes those conviction kz feel kind of honely. who was walking with you? who gave you the encouragement,

then, to live out those convictions? >> i think my wife jennifer would agree with me in saying that that has been the true blessing that has come out of a difficult situation. that is that the church, the local church writ large is galvanized. and that was monumental, i think, in helping us to draw strength from others and to also at the same time encourage others in doing the same thing, because quite frankly as i think all of us can probably attest to, we're all going to get our chance. there always will be a pending opportunity for you to stand for what god has said in his word as the differences between where society is going and where god

has always been. >> i think everyone would say you weren't looking for that. you were just living as god would have you live and then you found yourself in the midst of it. the length of this trial and the outco outcome. there is a process. we follow the process. as i said before, i think it wasn't until we got to the third appeal that the entirety of the issue was really addressed, both air force regulation and policy as compared to the first amendment. i think it all hit the fan, though, on october 17th. >> he's around somewhere. >> lurking in the corner. >> todd blew the story.

in a fashion that was measured and appropriate perhaps. i will say it's never fun being in that limelight. that's kind of where it really -- not the length, but the intensity really stepped up. that's where the prayers were even more effectual. >> and the outcome? >> the outcome was positive. the air force board of correction military records found that i had not unlawfully discriminated against the noncommissioned officer and his partner. [ applause ] and perhaps more importantly, the secretary chose not to disagree with the board's recommendation. >> it was an election during the midst of this investigation and the outcome. >> right. so i think that had circumstances been different, had someone else been making the

decisions, if you will, the outcome could have been quite different. and as we were discussing, i think we can all appreciate where we are today, but where the pendulum will be in the future, because it inevitably swings. we just have to be mindful of that. as the previous speakers have said, prayer is absolutely essential. >> colonel, congratulations on your successful promotion and retirement from the united states air force. and thanks for being with us. >> thank you. my pleasure. [ applause ] >> some of you may be familiar with our next panelist, joanna ducka. she is the owner of brush and nib studio. 2019, this year, was a lawsuit winner as a wedding vendor taking her case all the way to

the arizona supreme court. now, joanna, less than a month ago, you finally won your case at the supreme court in arizona. >> yes. [ applause ] >> big deal. and that decision allows you to decide what messages that you will proclaim through your work as a designer and as an artist. before -- besides sharing a little bit about what you do, tell us how you got there. what brought you all the way to the supreme court? >> well, it's an honor to be here and tell you this incredible story. freedom won in arizona this past month and it's an incredible day for americans and for all freedom-loving people. this journey began with me opening an art studio with my business partner. she and i are both artists. this was a dream of ours.

so in early 2015, we opened the business. we were going through all the normal steps a business owner goes through when you're getting started, trying to figure out the things that we didn't know and spending a lot of time on the phone with government agencies and trying to be legal and compliant and all of that sort of stuff. at the same time, we were developing our artistic style. art is an incredibly personal thing. for breanna and i, we are people of faith, we are women of faith. so our art was an extension of our faith in god and a desire to express the beauty of his creation and who he is and to be consistent in that. and we were creating for weddings. we love weddings. as christians we have a special appreciation for the beauty of marriage, that it is a picture of christ and his love for the church. creating for weddings was meaningful for us. we learned in the process of

starting our business that our city, the city of phoenix had a law that would threaten us with criminal penalties including jail time if we were to create art consistently with our beliefs. and we had really, you know, no choice. we were not going to compromise our convictions certainly. so we can sit and wait to have those terrible penalties potentially in front of us where we can challenge the law and say this is not constitutional to restrict the speech of artists. we serve everyone and cannot promote or speak every message and no american should be forced to. [ applause ] >> so caleb dalton represents joanna and our next panelist. this case was one that has

repercussions for not just others in arizona, but i mean this speaks to free expression, the right of business owners like joanna to be able to not be forced as indentured servants to convey a message that they don't want to convey. >> absolutely. they are willing to stand up for their convictions. it wasn't an easy thing to make that choice. they could have folded. they could have gone to another career choice. that's the only option that the city gave them. no american should have to be forced to choose between their career and their conscience. that's what the city of phoenix tried to do. they were willing to stand up to make that courageous choice to challenge this ordinance and ultimately obtain the victory. while it was from the state of arizona, the core principles apply to all americans. >> what you did, joanna, you did not just for yourself, but for

others. you could have just held back. what gave you -- i'm going to ask all three so the same question is coming to you. there had to be moments where you wondered should i do this? i'm sure the pressure not only politically and culturally, but spiritual. we're talking about spiritual warfare in many ways. what gave you that encouragement in the process? >> absolutely my faith. going into this obviously breanna and i put a lot of prayer into it. are we in the right path? because we wanted to do the right thing and we believe that god was leading us to do it. there were difficult moments. litigation is a long and dragged out process. >> you have to deal with a lot of attorneys, don't you? >> yes, yes. we were doing a lot of waiting. within that, there are times where it is difficult and you wonder did i do the right thing? is god still with me in this?

we both say we grew a lot in our faith through this process, because we believe that we were standing for what's right and that god took care of the details and we can trust him when we step out in faith and do what he calls us to do. if the outcome had not been what we wanted, we would still trust that. obviously, it's the outcome that we were praying for. >> we are grateful, as well, that you took the stand for many, many americans. >> thank you. >> don is from west michigan. he has west michigan beef company. and the department of agriculture had beef with you back under the previous administration. i want you to explain what happened. don, we've known each other since that happened. we've been working with you. i'll let the cat out of the bag or cow out of the stall.

the issue is your case turned out well. after the election, a new department of agriculture and respect for religious freedom. this was back during the height of debate over marriage. as a christian business owner, family business, privately owned, you were simply educating, giving opportunity to counter the messages that were in the culture when it came down to the issue of marriage. share with our audience what happened, what you went through. >> so i own a meat packing business. it's inspected by the united states department of agriculture. we work closely with them tlmpt are two of them stationed full time at my facility whenever we are operating. in my business, i have a break room. it was common practice for employees to bring in a

magazine, a newspaper. during the months leading up to the supreme court marriage decision and shortly thereafter, i noticed there was a lot of newspaper articles that were very supportive of the decision. so in early august of 2015, i came across an article that was more biblically based and gave a christian view of marriage. so i printed it out and put it on my break room table for my employees to read if they chose to do so along with the other newspaper and whatever else was on the table. and it wasn't maybe three hours later, i was told that there was someone to see me in my office. so i didn't think anything. i just went up to see who was there. here was my inspector in charng and his boss, the front line supervisor of the circuit that i'm in. they were looking upset and angry and holding that article that i put on the table. and they shut my doors.

and i'm sitting there in there wondering what did i do wrong. they put the article down on the desk and said are you going to leave this on your break room table. i said is there a problem? they said this is considered harassment and we're not willing to operate in this business or have inspectors here unless you remove that off the table. are you willing to take it off the table? and i just sat there completely shocked and stunned. i had no idea this was coming. and i didn't know exactly what to do. and they would sit and think they have the authority as my government to tell me what i can put on my break room table in my private business. >> just so i make sure to get the setting straight. this is in your business, your office. you have two inspectors from the united states government department of agriculture coming

in and telling you if you don't remove this off of your table in your break room, they're going to pull out their inspectors which ultimately shuts your business down because you can't operate without those inspectors. >> that's correct. the inspectors had to walk from their office to the production area through this break room. so when they walked through, they saw it on the table. they said because this is a public area and they're public employees therefore my business is not private, it's public. and i'm not allowed to have that on the table and leave my faith at the door. >> did you offer to give them blinders as they use when looking at the constitution. >> i did reason with them about first amendment freedoms and about what legal right you have to do this. i'm told there is an expanded definition of harassment and now you are no longer allowed to do this. after reasoning with them for

probably 10 minutes, i finally agreed to leave the articles off while i tried to decide what i could do legally. i told them i'm not giving up. my employees depend on this for a living. i can't have you shut the doors. so i agreed. >> and there was alliance defending freedom which came to your aid as first liberty. i just want to make this very clear. when you look at the public interest law firms, these organizations are essential to the defending and promoting of religious liberty. so we are so grateful for them. and we work hand in hand. for instance with don, adf

handled the legal building the case. we worked on the policy side, even taking this to the white house after the election. sunny purdue is the new secretary. once the president, which we helped work the executive order on religious freedom, once that was issued, you began to see the effects throughout the various agencies. and don, your case has been resolved. >> yes, it has. the way it is right now, the executive order resulted in a policy being issued by the secretary of agriculture that protects all free speech, and not just for private businesses, but also for the employees themselves to be able to feel free to share their convictions about moral issues and to have discussions. it freed it up for all of us. [ cheers and applause ]

>> but that could change with an election, because we just saw just yesterday beto o'rourke trying to make headlines again. he's going after your guns. now he's going after your god. i hope he finds him, actually. cnn's don lemon yesterday at a town hall meeting on inequality or they call it equality framed this question. he said do you think religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities, should lose their tax exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?

o'rourke, yes without hesitation. that's what we're talking about here. that those who believe like the three individuals here representing millions of manchs, there are those that want to take the tax exemption away from churches if they stand for what the bible says about marriage. >> that's incredible. first, thank you so much for having us and for the good work that you do. it's incredible, the partnership. we appreciate your work on don's case, as well. to have a candidate for office express that message toward people of faith is shocking. and it's shocking especially in light of the fact that a georgetown study indicated that religious individuals and corporations input into the economy over 1.2 trillion dollars of benefits in charitable services that we provide.

for a candidate to attack those who are out there loving their neighbor, but have a mere disagreement over an important issue like marriage, but have a disagreement on view points, that's not what america is about. america was founded on the idea that we can disagree, but we can get along. we can disagree, but not have the government come in and impose the view point on individuals to compel them to violate the conscience. that's what the individuals here on stage experience was trying to compel them to violate their conscience. thankfully under the current administration we have been able to achieve justice. that indicates the importance of how elections can matter. >> i want to turn this for a moment from the policy and political side to the very personal side, because as caleb has, we have worked with a number of individuals, men and

women, and young people who have stood up for their faith. and there are challenging times and moments in that. and i'm just going to throw it up, whoever wants to grab this. i think there are those that are here today, and you may reference it -- there are those that may be watching that maybe they are not in a trial today, but they will be. there is going to come a day when we are all challenged to stand. and often times this is like reading the bible. you see the outcome. it was great. but you don't know what happened in the middle. those lonely moments where there is discouragement and questioning should i have done this. if you would, just be candid and share kind of those low points so that people will know they're coming. then as the scripture says, joy comes in the morning.

>> i would just encourage everyone in this room, all of s os -- to be willing to take a stand. there needs to be something you were willing to put on the line for. there were very difficult moments. we have the great blessing of living in the united states of america and having a system which was amazing in my case where we can contend for our rights. and while we have that system i think we need to do so. it allows us to live freedom and allows everyone that freedom. we are all better as americans when everyone is free and when we can live together in a way where each person is consistent with what they believe. so i would say do stand. there are great organizations represented here, alliance defending freedom, others.

there are so many people who believe. there are so many people who are willing to stand for freedom and want to stand behind you. don't be afraid. stand up. keep in mind the end goal and the purpose of life and that there is so much more beyond this. any challenges that we experience here and now are really small compared to the things that truly matter. >> that's great. >> that's a great point about using the courts. it reminded me of the apostle paul. is this how you treat a roman citizen. he used his citizenship as a roman to go through the process. i think we need to do the same thing. as americans, we have a first amendment freedom. we have the freedom of religion. we have the freedom of speech. we have the freedom of association. it's not to be locked away in a safety box. it is to be used and exercised so that it is strong and vibrant

for the next generation. >> i think you bring up a good point when we talk a little bit about the emotion of it all. i think when you look up here, you see three instances, three cases where the efforts succeeded. so whether my case is overturned, your situation is being resolved, that's good. what if it had gone the other way? then this is something i have been wrestling with a little bit. because i was having a good time in the air force. i wanted to -- nothing is better than leading air men. they are fantastic young men and women defending our nation. i'm sure the same can be said of the army and sailors and navy.

when god chose to truncate that, i said it's hard not to be bitter about what i thought was going to happen and now is not happening. and that's god's sovereignty. if the cases had lost, if our efforts had failed, would we be bitter? how does that then impact our witness, our continued witness to our neighbors, to the american public and really to the world. i think we can take some lessons from our brothers and sisters in china. i can probably take lessons from our brothers and sisters in the middle east who were suffering far greater than we can even imagine. here we have in a nation where things are succeeding and perhaps the tide is turning in some ways. that may not always be the case. will we continue with a spirit of generosity and outreach?

or will we turn inward and become bitter because we didn't get what we wanted? >> excellent point. i'll give a quick plug for the sunday morning service here at the value voter summit. that's going to be the focus of our message in daniel chapter 3 where the hebrews were facing the fire where they said if the lord delivers us from you, great, if he doesn't, we're still going to be free. [ applause ] >> and i mean this is a family business. it was a lot of families depending upon you because you are as a small employer, it was about 40 -- >> 50 employees. >> you were faced -- and this is kind of where the government puts the squeeze on you, because they know you care about the families because you know them,

and they're in your community, some of them are family. and they are putting you in a spot to make a decision that will effect not just you and your bottom line, but all of the people that work for you. >> that was part of the decision whether to push back or not is that whole fear of loss, the fear of what's going to happen. and then as discouraging the time, i filed a formal complaint three or four days after this happened in august. i received a stamped letter that they received it. and then i received another stamped letter that it had been transferred to a different department. then it went into a black hole. heard nothing, could get no answer, could get no response. couldn't even get ahold of anybody. so there is months of just trying to run my business and always wondering if the next thing i put on the table is the thing that shuts it down. the instructors, i'm working

with them every day. he knows i file a complaint. he's looking over my table to see what's there. so it's just working with it for all those months and wondering. when they started, then there is the reality of where this could go. so at a certain point, my wife and i, we sat down and said are we prepared to lose everything, because we don't know -- at that time i don't think president trump had been elected yet and we figured it was pretty much a hopeless cause. we decided it was despite everything. it's bigger than us. it's something that's worth fighting for. so many people have died and fought for these freedoms. i have read so many stories and aspired to them. all of a sudden, here it is. it's my turn. so we hardly lost the thing.

the lord blessed us through it. we counted the cost, but didn't have to suffer like so many others have. i respect those that lost so much more of what we had. >> we have a few minutes left and i want to ask another question. i'm going to resist the temptation. there are so many one liners with your cows and stuff. i'm going to resist that temptation. we talked about those low moments. there was one point during the each of you went through that there was something that happened, somebody did something, somebody said something, you read something that was encouraginencouraging, moment of darkness all was a moment of light that encouraged you. >> i'll jump in. when i found out that mike barry

and first liberty institute were not going to charge me for representation. i say that a little bit tongue and cheek. i'll go back to your earlier point. to know that someone who has the expertise and mike barry is a marine reservist. so he knows military law very well. and he knows the issue very well. and so when he -- i got his name and he jumped in both feet, it was a huge relief to know not only that someone with expertise was there to help, but also someone of the same faith. he and his wife are praying right along with us. that goes back to what we were saying earlier about just people communicating consistently along the way that whether it was through e-mail or through a phone call or through a face-to-face interaction, it's

hard to nail down one specific hot point because we were consistently getting lifted up. >> that's good to know. that's why i want to come out with this is that when you see someone going through, the local church is such an important place. pastors coming along side. we have done these panels before and pastors have played a criticcrit ical role. this is when we need to reach out to let them know they're not alone. >> we received a ton of support from our church. so that's really, really key. and from a lot of christians we received so many encouraging messages. i would say the two things that were most impactful was to receive messages from people who disagreed maybe with our view of marriage, but said you are fighting for my freedom, also, and i stand with you and am grateful for that. that was incredible to see that they saw the value of freedom and that we were fighting for all americans. it was also encouraging to hear

from other business owners of faith that said i'm either in this business or thinking about starting a business, i have been afraid to because of laws like this and your case has given uscourage to do that. it is a great encouragement that others would be willing to do what god called them to do in the creative realm or any other type of business. >> i would say i agree with you the support of the church family and the support of my family at home, my wife and children. and then i also had business owners that were in the same type of business i am that would stop by or call and say it's a good fight. we're behind you. anything we can do, what can we do to help? that helped me to realize this isn't about one company or one family. this is about the freedoms that we all have come to count on in this country that are under

attack. >> i want to thank you, the three of you for being willing to put it all on the line. i mean, you put your career on the line. you put your new business on the line. on the line. don, you put a family business on the line for something that's bigger and greater than ourselves, and as you've pointed out, there are times when maybe it doesn't turn out the way we want and we know many cases. we've had many of them here at the values voter summit where some are still going on through litigation, some did not work out well, but from history, this is one of the greatest quotes from history comes from john quincy adams who as you know, is the only president of the united states ever to turn around and ran for congress. he wanted to end slavery, and i think it was in 1838 they got so tired of hearing him talk about

slavery they had the gag rule that you couldn't even bring up the word slavery on the house floor, and so he was approached by probably someone from fake news, but they came to him -- [ laughter ] >> and said mr. adams, when are you going to give up? you've lost. aren't you discouraged? you can't even talk about the very issue that you ran for congress to defend and this is what he said. he said duty is ours. results belong to god. and i believe as we are increasingly faced with the challenge to either stand for truth or bow to a lie, we must stand for truth. [ applause ] >> and as you and i have the courage to stand for that truth, many, many, many, in fact, i

believe, generations will have the benefit of our stand if we'll have the courage and the boldness to stand. let's thank our panelists. [ applause ] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> thank you, everybody. great job. our next speaker was sworn in as the 18th u.s. aid administrator in august of 2017. prior to joining usaid he served in congress representing the great state of wisconsin, and also as ambassador to tanzania.

no tanzanians here either. okay. he also served as the president of the international republican institute which is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing democracy and human liberty around the world. he's also served as president any chief executive officer of the initiative for global development, also a non-profit organization that engages corporate leaders to reduce poverty through business growth and investment in africa, and the senior director of the u.s. global leadership coalition which is a network of 400 businesses, non-governmental organization, policy experts and other leaders supporting development tools in american foreign policy. ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome usaid administrator, mark green. ♪ ♪

>> good morning. good morning. good to be with all of you. gil, thanks for those kind words and my thanks to tony perkins for this opportunity to join all of you. ronald reagan, one of our greatest presidents and the quintessential american, he used to claim that there was a sign in a federal building that read, in case of nuclear attack, federal rules will be temporarily suspended. [ laughter ] of course, the gipper would say that with a wink and a smile, but he was also making a serious and important point. in difficult times we know that faith is a source of strength and inspiration, and that truth is woven into the fabric of american history. it's why our founding fathers gathered so often to pray during the difficult struggle for independence. they understood the importance of faith in people's lives and

then later sought to preserve it in our young republic. today, i am afraid that too many americans just don't appreciate just how rare that freedom is. we all owe tony perkins a great debt of gratitude for his role of international religious freedom. he has an unyielding voice for those persecuted because of their faith, and we at usaid we proudly stand for tony and his colleagues in that mission. the assistance that usaid provides to people across the world is an expression of american compassion, but it's also a reflection of our history and our values. we know that the free exercise of religion is what brought the first pilgrims to our shores. ronald reagan often spoke of his belief that america should be a

shining city on a hill, an example of liberty for the rest of the world. of course, he was borrowing from one of those same pilgrims, john winthrop, who was in turn borrowing from the gospel according to matthew. usaid works on religious liberty because we firmly believe that it's not merely an american value, but a universal one. simply put, billions of souls all around the world feel strongly that their spiritual beliefs give purpose and meaning to their lives, and protecting each other's right to worship, it's really protecting each other's humanity. in today's world, too many people in too many places are attacked and persecuted merely for exercising this human right.

in northern iraq ices hassy kroo eighted genocide against christians and yazidis and other minorities. in one community, terrorists desiccated the local chaldean catholic church and beheaded congregants right on the altar. another of the region's ancient faith community, the yazidis were similarly targeted and attacked, like christians they were marked for extinction. in 2018 i traveled to northern iraq with ambassador sam brownback and my friend and former congressional colleague frank wolf. we visited a displaced persons camp and met with the yazidi survivors. i will never forget looking into the eyes of a yazidi mother. she showed us photographs of her missing daughters as though somehow, some way we could help find them.

sadly, of course, we could not. one of my first trips as usaid administrator i travelled to burma and bangladesh, and i visited with muslim rohingya who were brutally victimized with killings, rape and torture, destruction and nothing short of an ethnic cleansing campaign all driven by intolerance and sectarian hatred. i visited a camp near sitway in burma and i met with a young rohingya father whose children had all been born and were raised within the confines of a barbed wire perimeter. they lacked a mosque, didn't have any teachers and there was no regular medical care and they essentially lived off the food that we were giving them, and i looked at that young father and he said to me, what do i tell my son?

i've got nothing. in china, the government has forced millions of uighur muslims into re-education camps in a crackdown that harkens back to the darkest days of chairman mao's cultural revolution. beijing is determined to strip uighurs and others of their individuality, and yes, their faith. in europe, the old scourge of anti-semitism is rearing its ugly head. violence against jews and their places of worship is on the rise including yet another attack this very week in eastern germany. the suspect apparently sought to live stream his gruesome acts. and i recently traveled to the nigerian countryside, and i learned how extremists were

exlloyding local conditions and conflicts as fuel for jihad, but we know that attacks on religious liberty don't always take an interfaith form. sometimes there are simply efforts by an authoritarian regime to capture the community of faith, to bend it into surrendering its character and values for the tyrant's darker ends. i've heard stories from nicaraguan community leaders about the country's ongoing violence and brutality. the church and clergy there who believes their faith calls upon them to try to restore some sense of peace and justice are under attack for doing precisely that. because priests were unwilling to simply stand by as atrocities were committed by the regime, daniel ortega has called the

roman catholic church itself coup mongers. nicaraguans have told me how ortega's paramilitary forces storm the parish of the reverend gutierrez amid a hail of bullets, father gutierrez called a local radio station and before breaking down in tears he said they're defiling the churches. the government is killing us. on social media nicaraguan bishop says the government crosses into what is inhumane and immoral. the international community cannot be indifferent. he's right. we cannot be indifferent. we must not be indifferent, and i am here to reaffirm that the trump administration will never be indifferent when it comes to the persecution of faith communities. [ applause ]

>> my friends, we believe as vice president pence has put it an attack on one faith is an attack upon us all. at the unjust a few weeks ago president trump proclaimed we must all work together to protect communities of every faith. all over the world, usaid is supporting programs to address religious hate speech and interfaith conflict to promote the strengthening and enforcement of laws that protect religious freedom and to increase the capacity of civil society to advocate for it. we aim to reinforce ethnic and religious pluralism where it has historically existed. our work isn't about the content of faith. it's about society's tolerance of multiple faith traditions and the individual's right to freedom of conscience. that's the case in northern iraq and our efforts to restore at

least some of what isis tried to destroy. thanks to our president and vice president the u.s. genocide recovery and persecution response program is already providing $400 million to help persecuted minorities. we're working with 77 local partners, 17 faith-based groups and 35 international organizations providing urgent relief and humanitarian assistance to devastated communities. in fact, i can announce today that we're extending our work. we're awarding a little over $5 million to a group of universities including purdue, notre dame and iraq's university of duhoc to assess the agricultural damage done by isis that is impacting traditional cultural practices of persecuted communities. let me be real clear, we're not using these funds to rebuild

faith nor will we be rebuilding mosques or shrines or churches, but we do intend to restore some hope to those who isis targeted for destruction. [ applause ] but there's another way that us a aid is working to protect u.s. liberty and it's the power to unleash the faith-based organizations in our broader mission to lift lives. so many of these wonderful groups are answering the call to the faithful that has wronged throughout history. in the gospel of luke, the gods call out to john the baptist asking what then shall we do? he answers by saying that whoever has two tunics should share with him who has none. whoever has food should do the

same. ancient sages wrote that the world depends upon three thing, torah, the law, service to god and others and acts of loving kindness. in more recent times john paul ii reminded us every generation of americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but having to do -- having the right to do what we ought. reverend billy graham put it differently. he liked to say god has given us two hands, one to receive with and one to give with. i sense a pattern here. that spirit, that part of our humanity, that part that bears the unmistakable fingerprints of god urges us to put faith to work and turn worship into

deeds. at usaid we've been undertaking reforms to the partnership and procurement process to tear down the barriers and burdens that too often pushes the faith community and local groups away. too often calls upon faith-based organizations to surrender their faith character. we must be able to touch people who have been left behind or forgotten. we must be able to reach corners where governments cannot effectively go or where they have chosen not to. in many settings, being able to partner with the faith-based community enables us to do just that. faith-based organizations are often uniquely trusted voices in those forgotten communities. they can harness networks and resources and insight that can help us reach out in ways that we otherwise could not. i'll end with this.

this past march in jordan i visited a center run by caritas international, it provides refugees in the timeless art of crafting mosaics. the refugees were christians who had fled their homes in mosul and baghdad, escaping the brutality of isis. so madebeh has been famous since roman days not only for their beautiful mosaics, but also as a model of religious tolerance. it's a place where christians and muslims have long lived peacefully side by side. caritas is helping iraqi refugees and people who have had so much taken from them to develop skills and craftsmanship to enable them to help and furthering the city's beautiful ancient traditions.

madubah, a tolerant and diverse city, has given these refugees an opportunity to once again practice their faith freely. it has enabled them to become part of the area's rich, cultural fabric and taught them a skill to help them to begin to economically rebuild their lives. >> before i left madubah in the trip that that i mentioned the refugees presented me with a gift. a beautiful mosaic to express their gratitude for our support in their time of need. we will display this at usaid's main lobby. as a symbol of our work to assist those who face persecution and violence merely for exercising their faith. it will also serve as a

challenge to us, to take up the mission that the world's great faith traditions call for, to lift lives and build communities for believers and non-believers alike or in the words of john the baptist, to share a tunic with him who has none. thank you. [ applause ] ♪ ♪ >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen. one of the great sponsors of the summit is the americans for religious freedom and as we've just been talking about that in our last couple of session, let's take a quick look at americans for religious freedom. ♪

>> i was told we don't write about jesus in school. >> they cut my mike at a graduation speech just because i thanked god for his guidance. >> they said i couldn't read the bible at school during my free time. >> my teacher said that i couldn't use a bible verse in my class assignment. ♪ >> let's hear it for americans for religious freedom and the wonderful job they're doing. [ applause ] >> our final speaker this morning we are delighted to have dr. sebastian gorka in the house. as i think all of you know he's the host of the daily talk show on the radio network, america first. he served president donald trump as deputy assistant for strategy and has briefed the cia, the dia, the u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s and

the commandant of the marine corps. he's also testified before congress on the threat of global jihadism. he remains a guest instructor at the john f. kennedy special warfare center and school at fort bragg, the home of the green berets. dr. gorka writes for the hill and has written three book, defeating jihad, why we fight, defeating america's enemies with no apologies and he has a brand-new book out that you can get here at the values voter summit or at bookstores everywhere called the war for american soul. ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome dr. sebastian gorka. ♪ ♪

>> thank you, everybody, and good morning. i feel like i should take a nap. [ laughter ] so, let me tell you a little story. my wife and i just moved home recently, and we had a little house warming, and our neighbor from where we used to live came to the house warming. great guy, wonderful family, former marine and now works in the intelligence community, and he regaled us the sad story of what happened to his house in the recent floods here. we had recent heavy rains in northern virginia and he ended up with three feet of water in his basement. a huge amount of damage, and i asked him how bad it is and where are they now. he said we're negotiating with the insurance company. it's all going to be fine except we lost all of our photo albums with our children.

so not valuable in terms of currency value, but priceless in terms of memory, and it made me think, what are the items that i would grab if that hurricane were happening, if god forbid, was there a fire. what are the handful of things that i'd reach for before i left our home to the elements? it's not many, really. most things can be replaced. photo albums really can't. and i remember the one physical item that would always be with me and it doesn't look like

much. it's about yay big and an inch tall and it's made out of baker light. do you remember baker light? before plastic -- fancy plastics and polymers? and it's a crucifix, a handmade crucifix with the cross in blue and the body of our lord in white. why would i save that? lots of fancier crosses. i've been to the holy land. i've brought back crucifixes and crosses from israel made out of the olive trees where our lord walked. why that one? let me explain. there is a story in my book, the war for america's soul, which describes how my life changed in the span of one sentence.

sometimes you can truly identify a moment in your life where your existence comes to a fork in the road and there's only two branches. you can go this way or you can go that way. for me, that moment came on a beach in southern france when i was about eight years old. my parents, as children, suffered under fascist occupation. they lived in hungary. my mother was born in 1939. my father was born in 1930, and they lived as children under the oppression of world war ii and then the fascist dictatorship. after that, my father was arrested and tortured and given a life sentence by the secret

police of the next dictatorship and the fascists were replaced with the communist. he would eventually escape from prison during the glorious ten days of the iranian resolution and he'd escaped to the west with the 17-year-old daughter of a fellow prison mate hiding under a train carriage ask then then literally crawling through a minefield into free austria. that 17-year-old girl whose father was in prison with my father for the crime of being a lead are of the ymca. they escaped hungary to austria and relocated eventually to the uk where i was born and bred, but i was born into liberty. the uk, the mother of

democracies. i grew up under marg raaret thatcher and looked to ronald reagan as a hero, but my life changed when i truly understood what my parents had lived through because my father was a great athlete. he was on the national crew team for hungary when he was arrested by the communists and they never broke him, so he was a great bear of a man. he loved to swim and on that day as i was sitting on the sand with my g.i. joes he came out of the ocean, this s mazing figure of a man, and i looked at him, and i saw something i hadn't realized before. he had these lines on his

wrists, these white line, and i knew he was far too young to be wrinkled on his wrists. so like a foolish child i asked him, hey, dad, what's that? without skipping a beat, no emotion, he responded, well, son, that's where the secret police bound my wrists together with wire behind my back so they could hang me from the ceiling of the torture chamber. >> that's when my life changed forever. why? because from that sentence onward, i knew at a deep, deep level in my soul that evil is real. that evil exists in the hearts

of men and it walks the earth. it's not a word that is just related to or reserved for mythological stories or children's stories about witches and dragons and magic forests. evil exists. and that crucifix was given to me by my father because when he was in prison it was his faith and the lord that kept him alive and sane, and he had a bake light toothbrush which was multicolored blue and white, and with a little shard of glass he

cut that toothbrush, and as an amateur sculpture, and he was an artist, as well, formed the body of our lord out of that tooth prush and in the shape of awe cross so that god would be with him even be in his direst moments. >> in my book i tell the about that he was in prisons with cathol catholic, an incredible story they're be given a pastry which now and again it would have some rais

raisins and all of the patriots would collect the raisins so they could make fermented grape juice in prison, save some bread and then say mass while the communists were torturing and executing their fellow patriots. these are the things we have to remember today as we roll headlong into the specter of a socialist america. we have one political grouping in our country that has come out of the closet as socialists. it is shocking to me as the child of those who escape fascism and communism, that according to the annual poll of the victims of the communism and

memorial foundation and an amazing institution in b.c. and they do a big poll. according to the victims of communism memorial foundation in the last poll, 52% of american millennials wish to live in a socialist or communist america. 50 -- it's not funny, madam. it's not funny. it's deadly serious. because this ideology has caused the deaths of an estimated 100 million souls in the last century. and people like alexandra ocasio-cortez and people like bernie sanders and liz warren wish to realize it here, and we cannot let them. [ applause ]

>> there's a good friend of mine, an orthodox jew that taught me one day and jeff, if you're listening, i give you full credit. there's something special about this country. the greatest nation created by god, hang on -- just calm down and let me do the speaking, okay? all right? [ laughter ] i'm the guy up here. i get the big bucks. you can just relax and listen, okay? as my friend jeff says, greatest nation created by god, israel. greatest nation created by a man, america. that's the connection, and we must never, ever forget it. as ronald reagan reminded us, we need to be the shining city on

the hill, but as he also said, the loss of liberty, the extinction is what he actually said, the extinction of liberty is but one generation away. and look, i am honored to work with the president when he was candidate trump and it was the highest honor of my career to be his deputy of strategy at the white house, but i have to be very honest with you. in 2016 all he did is open a window of liberty, a very small, grace-filled wind over liberty, and that window can close in the next 389 days. theyor a war path. think of what they've done to this man. think of what they've done to his family and anybody who works for him or has associated with him. they've called him a racist, a

bigot, a white supremacist and called this man an anti-semite when his most senior adviser is his jewish son-in-law and his grand children are jewish and he's the first president in 23 years of broken promises, 23 years ever single president for 23 years has said yes, we'll recognize jerusalem. yes, we'll move our embassy, all of them broke their promise to our brothers and sisters in israel. along comes donald trump, let me tell you a story. when donald trump wanted to do that, make that decision, i've revealed this before, he had a meeting of his principles. his cabinet members and his national security adviser. only three people in his administration, only three people supported the president's

decision. one of them who didn't, who had a very robust reputation in the media who had a nickname of mad dog said don't do it, mr. president. you will ignite world war iii and i don't have enough marines to protect our embasses in the middle east. don't do it. what was my boss' response? three things. i promised our brothers and sisters in israel. i promised the american people, oh, and by the way, it's the right thing to do! [ cheers and applause ]

>> that's who donald trump is. [ applause ] >> and i have a personal request to you and it's with another story. it's a morning of stories. i was recently asked to address a republican conservative women's group for their annual dinner, and i was honored, huge crowd and had a very, very fancy country club not far from here, and i arrived early. it was full, and it was going to be a packed, packed dinner and as i was walking back to the car park from the club i realized something strange. this is a conservative, republican event and outside of my car only one other vehicle in

the whole car park had a trump sticker, and i actually mentioned this in my speech and i said, thank you, ladies, for coming and thank you for your support for local candidates and thanks for knocking on door asks by the way, why aren't you standing up for the president? you can't put a bumper sticker on your car? don't give me this the crazy liberals will key my car. oh, really? that's the level of your support for your president? he's being called outrageous things every single day. the obama cia director is calling hem a traitor on television and you're worried about your car being keyed? show some backbone because we are in a fight. we are in a fight for the survival of the republic as the

founding fathers gave it to us. and don't be misled, the decision last week by nancy, the capitulation of the squad who i prefer to call the four horsewomen of the democrat apocalypse, that wasn't a spur of the moment capitulation. they have been planning that since he was sworn in on january 20, 2017 because they've decided that america chose the wrong candidate, quote, unquote. instead, it was a woman who thought it was owed to her because of her gender and her last name, perhaps the most corrupt politician in modern american history. [ cheers and applause ] so i ask you, what are you prepared to do in the next 389

days? you can write checks to candidates. you can knock on doors, be a monitor, and it's all great. it's all great, but it is not enough. it is not enough because you know that they will be organized. you know they will cheat, lie and bus people to the polling stations. so i ask you very simply to do the following. in addition to everything you've done as activists and the supporters, and i thank you on behalf of tony and his great team, i want every single one of you to become what the military calls a force multiplier. i don't care how old you are. i don't care how technically challenged you deem yourself to be. if you are not on social media every single day, supporting the president you are part of the problem, not part of the

solution. [ applause ] there's a reason that incredible americans like dennis prager that you'll be hearing from later today. there are reasons that he is being censor asked throttled on social media, there are reasons that internal google e-mails that are calling him and ben shapiro nazis because they are afraid and we have them on the run, but they will not give up and you owe it to donald j. trump to be there for him. [ applause ] so here's my request, as former deputy assistant to the president to every single body in this room and everybody watching, i want everybody who has a pulse and who is breathing who is listening to me to, by

midnight tonight, get a twitter account, get a facebook account and an instagram account. i don't care if all you do is re-tweet the president. that's fine. you're already being a megaphone. this is like the pamphleteers of the 18th century. these are our pamphlets for saving the republic, but even better than that, wherever you live and wherever you come from, document the insanity around you. document the lies and the propaganda and take a photograph and do a film and post it because that is the only way we will win. [ applause ] there is a reason yet president has 63 million followers on just twitter alone because the fake news industrial complex is out to destroy him, and we cannot let that happen.

[ applause ] so by midnight tonight, every single one of you, twitter, facebook and instagram and you know that i know people who can check, right? [ laughter ] watching. watching. let me end with the boss. let me give you a direct quote from what i consider to be the most important speech he has given in the last three years, and i don't want to make a mistake so i will read it to you verbatim. when i was in the white house we managed to organize a visit by the president to poland, to one of the strongest nations in our

judeo-christian, and they wanted the president to give his big speech in a fancy palace downtown and we said no, no, no. if you want our president to come to poland, we have a very special request. his big speech will be delivered right next to the magnificent bronze statue of the polish freedom fighters crawling out of the suers in the warsaw uprising before they fought the nazi occupational forces. we want him to be standing right next to that statue of freedom fighters fighting fascists and after some negotiation, they agreed and i'll give you the three most important stanzas from that speech. if you haven't watched it, you haven't read it do so tonight. you can watch the video, you can read the transcript on the white

house's website, but these three stanzas are everything you need ton about not only the plight of our republic, but the plight of our civilization. as i stand here today before this incredible crowd, this faithful nation, we can still hear those voices that echo through history. their message is as true today as ever. the people of poland, the people of america and the people of europe still cry out "we want god." [ applause ] >> our own fight today in the west does not begin on the

battlefield. it begins with our minds, our wills and our souls. today, the ties that unite our civilization are no less vital and demand no less defense than that bare shred of land on which the hope of poland once totally rested. our freedom, our civilization and our survival depend on these bonds of history, culture and memory. and this is the most important part for all of us to internalize. the fundamental question of our time is whether the west has the will to survive. . do we have the confidence in the

values to defend them at any cost? do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it? that is the question, my friends, that we need to ask all of ourselves for the next 389 days. the stakes could never be greater. if you want to know all of the crimes that have been committed by the last administration, who is behind them, what it's going to take to defeat them and my exclusive interview with the president, have a look. "the war for america's soul" and it is a war. god bless you all. [ cheers and applause ]

♪ ♪ >> facebook ceo and co-founder mark zuckerberg testifies next week about his company's cryptocurrency project. he'll take questions from the house financial services committee and that's live wednesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span3 and a reminder you can also watch on-line at c-span.org or the free c-span radio app. >> this saturday on american mystery tv, we're featuring political cartoons on lectures in history at 8:00 p.m. eastern and the influence, and say ago on keep the american leaguel flying and buy stamps.

the 1944 presidential campaign, the animated short, hell-bent for election. >> hey, joe, joe! >> yeah, sam? >> take a look at today's timetable. ♪ >> only one of these trains can get to california. 44 is a single track. >> sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifacts during the army heritage days in carlisle, pennsylvania, we visited a world war ii u.s. army battalion weigh station. >> this is an emergency room and we assess, we treat and stabilize and get them out. get out of my e.r. and and at 8:00 on the presidency, we'll examine the work and first lady pat nixon, 50 and she's

politically astute realized that the republicans were lose something ground on this. it was the democrats who were proposing legislation and, you know, bills to support women and she worked very closely with the office of women's issues to help get more appointment are points of women in the federal government. >> explore our nation's past on "american history tv," every weekend on c-span3. >> the city of toledo has been called the glass capital of the world. it's referred to as the glass city, and that's because of the influence of four international corporations, all producing some aspect of glass, and that has been the case since 1888 when edward brought the first factory

glass to toledo. >> this weekend, the c-span cities tour takes you to toledo, ohio. >> i think places like toledo are often taken for granted and that's a shame because there's such wonderful history here. we serve the steel region ask without work, we could not go to road which is the rail rood ins stree it has a population of about 300,000 and its waterways connect to lake erie. >> there's a lot that happens on this river in toledo, ohio as a shipping port that people aren't even aware of, even people who live here. >> join thus saturday at 9:30 a.m. eastern on book tv and sunday on american history tv as the c-span cities tour takes you to toledo, ohio?

looks back at policies on managing immigration. >> i would argue that the current wave of fativism and xenophobia is not different from when we've seen in the past and while it seems to us to be peppered with acts of violence and perverocity and there have n other anti-immigrant riots before the civil war and anti-immigrant riots in the 1880 aets, there have been a lot of moments in american history when the anti-immigrant sentiment has been translated into true ugliness. >> watch sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q and a. >> general davidberg err, the commandant of the marine corps dius