can do testing for nerve agents, biological and chemical weapons. so only eight countries knew this existed. so it is by chance that this actually happened there. and it was able to be revealed. this is only one assassination that has taken place on british soil. there was one poisoned by polonium, a radiological agent, so the first dirty bomb used on british soil and also spread polonium all the way around the united kingdom. there is lots of evidence of intervention in pretty much every european election. constant assassinations. exactly. the tier garden. and of course constant attacks on critical national infrastructure through cyber attacks.

pipelines and cables under the baltic sea, the estonians, the swedes -- constanze: threats to our freedom and democracy. fiona: all of this is real in europe. so europeans know that what ukraine has experienced, the destruction of his desk is critical national infrastructure all the , interventions made in ukraine's politics before is what they are facing as well. we may be remote here. it is not feel remote in the u.s. if you look in polling that i saw last week in the u.k., the relationship with the united states is extraordinarily important. 48% of people said it was more important to stick by ukraine then to improve the relationship with the united states at this point. 48%. in terms of favoring sticking by the united states, it was in the 20's. 20%. people said they did not know. it is a hard point to be put. we are seeing a shift here where people in europe see their situation is on the line.

that rupture we mentioned before is real and is a sobering thought the chickens have come home to roost. a lot more should have been done. many of us have been putting this on the agenda for your prolonged time. but it is real. the security threat in europe is not just imagined. it is not just disinformation. it is viscerally felt. benjamin: tyler, i want to ask you -- i referred earlier to this cycle that began with what came to be called george h. w. bush's chicken kyiv speech, so named by the columnist william safire in which sort of , ukrainians expect american backing and they don't get it at the level that they expected or we promised. this is a -- we may be going through what i think is the sort of fourth and most dramatic

cycle of that, where we actually side with the russians, but all of these episodes have to do with ukraine's relationship with russia and one of the roles that you play in the podcast is kind of as the sort of naive american who has kind of never -- tyler: it came pretty naturally. [laughter] benjamin: it is a persona but because tyler is anything but naive but you are the guy who is , like, i did not know this happened. tyler: to any other naive americans listening or younger listeners, chicken kyiv is used pejoratively, which you may not know because it is a delicious dish, but you are right. it is -- the history of the u.s. and ukraine since independence in 1991 has been one of misunderstandings and betrayals and one of our episodes is

called "the worst of both worlds." benjamin: also features fiona in one of her prior lives. tyler: the new york times had an editorial in which it condemns with a complete 180 in u.s. foreign policy toward ukraine and i was thinking that is not maybe absolutely true. the u.s. -- you mentioned the u.s. has viewed ukraine for a long time through a russian lens. there was a ukrainian diplomat who we speak to on the podcast who said the same thing. that the u.s. always looks at ukraine to russian glasses and sort of plays by their terms, so it seems the trump administration is looking at this history and picking the worst lessons and accelerating them and acting on that. i will say there is reporting this morning in bloomberg that the u.s. may commit to a

sovereign ukraine in the negotiations, which is heartening. whether or not they listen to the first episode of escalation, i'm not sure. i cannot confirm or deny that, but it seems like that is obviously the bare minimum, but -- benjamin: can i point out we have done that. that is the budapest. constanze: [indiscernible] benjamin: benjamin: so walk us through a couple of the cycles because there are, as i joked earlier, they do tend to be named for cities in europe that start with 'bu' and the first cycle is the independence of ukraine itself, the chicken kyiv speech. the second cycle comes only a few years later. what happens? tyler: i believe you are referring to the budapest memorandum.

i think maybe if years ago if you asked americans even , well-versed in foreign policy and it is not a household name, but in ukraine it is. benjamin: by the way the only , moment of true comedy in the entire podcast is at the beginning of the second episode where our producer max, who is sitting here in the front row, asks a young ukrainian activist who is sitting back there, what do you think of the budapest memo? and she exclaims, my god, it is a total fail. and this is something that is not in the consciousness of the average american, but you ask a ukrainian about the budapest memo, this is fresh in the front of their minds. anastasiia: you have to hear how she says it for a full drama, so

make sure to listen to that. tyler: to catch us up to speed in broad strokes after the fall , of the soviet union a large part of the nuclear arsenal left by the soviets actually was in ukraine. they could not really operate it. a lot of the command-and-control was back in moscow. it was expensive to maintain, but nuclear weapons come with some degree of security, but the deal struck was that ukraine would give up the nuclear weapons for financial incentives as well as from the american , perspective assurances of ukrainian security from the ukrainian perspective i think there was understanding it was more of a guarantee. there were two different translations and i think this is emblematic of the relationship. the u.s. wanted ambiguity, but -- to give it more room to maneuver but that room on the left room for russia to take advantage of ambiguity and i will end by saying in learning

about this i think it was very important for ukraine to give up nuclear weapons and we had this thing where it was a microcosm of the u.s.-ukraine relationship every time. we would argue about the narrative arc and everything, but the budapest memo is a great example. benjamin: one of the striking things about that story when we talked to diplomats at the very senior levels, when you talk to people who were literally in one case my sister's college roommate, who was a 22-year-old diplomat at embassy kyiv at this time, is how guilty they feel about the budapest memorandum and there is actually sound from bill clinton talking about how much he regrets it. it is a remarkable thing i learned from the reporting of this, which is how many people

have regrets about what we did in that context. fiona, there is another city in europe that begins with 'bu,' another european capital where there was an understanding reached that you played a substantial role in a number of years later that also shows up as one of these kind of recurrent cycles of our not being able to kind of form a coherent policy. tell us about what happened in bucharest. fiona: on the budapest memorandum, i had mentioned edward before. when he was president of georgia, he told his ukrainian counterpart, see if you can keep one or two of the nuclear weapons. when they were giving them up. they were like, what do we deal, stick them in a closet? he had been the soviet foreign

minister and said he had seen documents about what would happen if any of the soviet republics tried to succeed and he said they might come in handy later, which of course belarus -- if ukraine had been a nuclear state and belarus had well belarus has been pretty much , swallowed up by russia and ukraine probably would not have been invaded. and the nonproliferation consequences are real because others have been noting in germany and in other places, there is talk about europe needing to have a bomb and the message to japan and south korea and other countries who feel threatened. and bucharest, so we can get back to this point, becomes important in that context because it is another effort to give ukraine and georgia some kind of guarantees for their future security. now bucharest was more about georgia than about ukraine at

the time and this is where the reference to worst of both worlds comes. in ukraine at the time of the bucharest nato summit, which was in 2008, there was not a great deal of enthusiasm for joining nato at that point. we have to remember the politics in ukraine have taken all kinds of twists and turns. the ukrainians are aware, and this was at the popular level, the population that there was , not great support for going into nato, but it was more of an elite project thinking around the ukrainian president. but in georgia there was a full throated desire at a popular and elite level to become part of nato. georgia had been supporting the united states in iraq and afghanistan and was pushing for a membership action plan to nato . it was thought, and i'm still years later trying to piece together who thought this because it seems to have been a

collection of people from all kinds of different backgrounds, that georgia's case would be strengthened if ukraine joint as well, so this was the kind of fateful decision. a letter was written to george w. bush asking for his support. president bush being a good , texan, he was more enthusiastic about supporting the feisty countries of georgia and ukraine. this was after the united states well and truly waded into iraq. trying to pursue the freedom agenda. bush thought that ukraine and georgia should be supported. i did a series of deep dives. he said if they made an appeal, and on military terms looked like they had the wherewithal to contribute to nato and georgia already was come, and ukraine at that time still had a sizable and capable army, certainly in terms of being able to keep the

russians someone at bay, then he would support the membership action plan. the problem is no one else supported it in europe. partially because of perceptions of him in his role and others knew ukraine was not fully on board at this point and there was a loss of resistance. what happened -- we briefed against it because we think if you push for something you cannot get it is not a great idea because it just shows weaknesses and divisions. once president bush decided to go ahead, at bucharest there was -- as we now know and have heard, chancellor merkel opined trying to find some kind of solution to her eastern european counterparts, well one day you'll will get into nato, and

that casual aside one day they will get into nato was pounced on by many east europeans at the table who were quite supportive of pushing for ukraine's membership action plan, as well georgia's, and that was turned into the text of the bucharest memorandum. why it was the worst of both worlds was it was not really a promise. it was kind of an open door and putin wanted to slam that door and jam everyone's foot in and bash the door off and of course in august of 2008 russia does invade georgia at a pretext of basically exchanges with peacekeepers. which myself and other colleagues had been warning for some kind of flashpoint in georgia for a good year before that. there were certainly tensions building up between georgia and russia and ukraine realizes at that point is exposed in terms

of security. the membership action plan does not bring any security and the egg flaw in all of nato as far as russia was concerned it was backstopped by the united states because at this point europe has not been contributing, as we know, to the extent to which it was required. so this comes down to a single point of failure in nato this point, which is united states ' willingness and from then on putin is trying to test whether the united states is willing to in fact defend any of its allies because it knows and finds out quickly, certainly not georgia and later certainly not ukraine. benjamin: did you have something? constanze: i wanted to point out, since fiona mentioned her -- proliferation, there has been in my view an intellectually academic debate about nuclear weapons, just in case the

americans for one reason or another decided to pivot to asia. that academic debate has just gone live. with comments by the incoming chancellor before the election saying that we -- in response to the speeches by secretary of defense hegseth at nato and in brussels and by vice president vance in munich, that europe was going to have to develop its own nuclear deterrent and that would mean the french and british deterrent, which is not enough to replace the american deterrent, would have to be expanded. germany would have to join in that. i cannot overemphasize the change that is in the politics of one country. that was a complete taboo. we are in fact signatories of

the nonproliferation treaty. i think what we are seeing here coming out of this white house is taking the lid off many things, including proliferation worldwide. i do not need to describe to anyone the risk inherent with that. we have similar debates in asia, namely japan and south korea. i will say that i was at dinner at nato before the security conference where an eastern european said, well, we'll have to get nuclear weapons, too. that is where we are. that is not a good thing. let me end by saying i personally feel -- not only do i think that is ill-advised, but it is a sponsor -- response to the fact that russia employed the threat of nuclear weapon

use in its invasion of ukraine and that has served as a significant deterrent on escalation of the biden and schulz chancellery. you can understand the political mechanics of this. the truth is if that -- discussing a european nuclear deterrent is in many way distraction from a much more urgent issue which is conventional deficiency and the need to dramatically increase our defense industrial production and defense spending. i just want to point out there is a nato summit in the hague this summer. there are a lot of extremely urgent questions hanging over that summit. you can see from the calendar of eu emergency summits that's now

beginning on march 6, a european union summit in the third week of march, i think you will see a ticking up of news out of brussel and out of europe on developing an independent deterrent of whatever comes. -- whatever kind. benjamin: we will get audience questions momentarily. if you have a question, flag for me. if you do not formulate your question in the form of a question or you prattle on, i will cut you off with a shocking lack of due process. please do wait for the mic and while we are -- you know, he who moderates most aggressively keeps the show going. while you wait for the mic, i want to ask one more question which is in this conversation, we have focused a great deal on

american follies and betrayals. but in the podcast we actually spend a bit of time on some ukrainian follies and fiona alluded earlier to the politics of ukraine being all over the place. as a ukrainian who was not born when a that happened, --anastaiia: some of it. benjamin: tell us about the experience of looking back on ukrainian history in the course of doing this work. anastaiia: that was extremely fascinating for me as you said a lot of it i have not lived through. i was walking into this show with, you know, being aware of the responsibility of spreading ukraine's message and that's why we have an american co-host and an ukraine co-host and why i had to make sure ukraine's history was given justice.

we covered a lot of extremely important topics that is are unreported and western audience don't understand. for example we spent a great , deal talking about language politics because everyone is utterly confused about it. we had to explain it. yeah, there were moments where it was very uncomfortable for me and also quite eye-opening that actually it is not just evil americans who messed it all up and i am exaggerating, of course. i always knew that was not the case. it was interesting to see that americans and europeans have d their problems but often the ukrainian government have messed up badly again and again. we really made ourselves look unreliable, corrupt, and a lot like russia as well. so, that was very interesting and important for me as well, hi, baby.

[laughter] so, it was important for me to be objective and truthful as possible, you know, to put my ukrainian hat on and journalist hat on. i am proud of all the work we have done and i think it is going to be amazing to see that each issue we cover, summit and event has distinct viewpoints of it. two routes from the ukrainian and american points of view. i hope all of you enjoy it. benjamin: we have a lot of people who want questions so please keep questions brief, and if you can direct them to an individual, that would be great. sir. >> this is probably for fiona. the united states government was

in position of at least an approximate russian invasion plan in october of 2021. the russians knew we had that plan because bill burns onto moscow and told him. russian domestic media was showing in the 3 months before start of the invasion going -- all of the airplanes coming into kyiv with javelins and stingers and they were portraying ukrainians preparing for war. the 21st of february at the security council meeting -- benjamin: we need this to head to a question. >> they showed ukrainians arm to prepare for war. on the evening, the russians are sent in, the soldiers are woken up in the night and stripped of their cell phones. they don't even see putin's announcement of the special military operation in which he calls ukraine a hostile anti-russia pumped up with modern weapons. benjamin: we need a question. >> does anybody think that was

weird? fiona: well, if we think about the preparations that putin, i know by this period inside out because i was asked to comment on this and i was watching these things carefully. the russians were preparing the ground as we knew for what they are calling a special military operation. they wanted to have a pretext. there were a number of other things happening around this time. given all the machinations and ukrainian politics in this kind of period a gentleman who's a ukrainian very close to putin and putin is the god-father, he of one of his daughters was basically arrested by the ukrainians. putin is one person that never let one of his men go. the assassin one of the reasons , evan was taken into custody,

there are all kind of things happening that are affecting putin's calculus about going into ukraine. he feels irrespective of what is showing on russian television, that ukraine is getting away from russia's grip. this has been going on for a very long time. in 2014, when russia moved in in to seize crimea, there was efforts to take ukrainian cities all the way down to odessa. if you want to look at youtube at 2014, you will see that russia launched a campaign in europe/russia to retake the territory first brought into russia by catherine the great. if you go back to 2006, russia turned off the gas transiting

across ukraine. if we go back to the early 1990s, before you were paying attention to what was going on in russia, there were all kinds of assassinations of crimean tartar's and ukrainians because russia didn't want ukraine to pull out the commonwealth of independence day. i have been going through this since the 1980's as a student in moscow. my first visit in ukraine when it was still apart of the soviet union. i had been working on this issue for an extra nearly long time. if you take all of this and -- in totality what you will see , from the early 1990's when ukraine was being pushed to give up nuclear weapons, constituents in moscow and russia saw every move that ukraine made as physically a violation of the relationship between ukraine and russia and did when ukraine to have any other options to go anywhere else. every move that ukraine makes from all this way and can be

documented and seen as offensive from russia's perspective. by the time you get to the things you are discussing, putin has decided ukraine has no rights and should not go anywhere at all. it is not just ukraine. it is also belarus and moldova and also because extend -- also kazakhstan. it is not only how things are being depicted by ukraine. you can see depictions of many other places when georgia was invaded by russia in 2008. the same kind of depictions were happening on russian television. i think you are presenting something and looking at your face and you are saying that russia had cause for this. but russia only had cause if you still believe everywhere is part of russia's sphere of influence. perhaps we can take this outside so you can clarify. of course it is weird for the point of disinformation. it was not actually accurate. russia has been gunning for the return of ukraine basically since the 1990s when ukraine got away.

benjamin: ma'am? >> thank you so much. this is a question for fiona. what would be your advice to u.k. prime minister starmer when he is approaching those conversations concerning ukraine later this week? >> i think the prime minister has probably figured out clearly that this is an enormous -- enormously consequential meeting. it is not just because of ukraine but the whole future of european security for the united kingdom itself. the u.k. and the united states are extraordinary defense relationships. it is going to be difficult for european members of nato to be able to make the transition of taking charge of nato as they are being exulted to, without some sort of transitional period by the united states. also, the u.k. has made strong commitments to ukraine.

i have already referenced poland and the u.k. showing there is a considerable support in the u.k. for supporting ukraine. as there is across the rest of europe. the cases is going to have to be made, in prime minister starmer has already made commitments about the depth of u.k. willingness to deploy some troops onto the ground and any peacekeeping operation. the important thing is to get all of this across to president trump in the best way that we possibly can. again, i don't want to put words into his mouth. i'm sure he is thinking very carefully and president macron is already here. we are seeing all european leaders at this particular point realizing this is the dawning of a new era and they have to figure out where they themselves stand. how they are going to manage the relationship with the united states, not just with ukraine moving forward. >> we have time for one more

question. and it is yours. >> let me thank you so much for an intellectually stimulating but also emotionally troubling discussion. i would like constanze and fiona to follow up on their points that there has been a reversal of the worldview of the united states and russia, vis-a-vis europe. could you contemplate how this could affect policies to punish russia, assuming there is a cease fire, for example, if russia -- if the united states takes one approach to sanctions to lift but europe doesn't. if europe wants to punish war crimes, but the united states does not. what police due to the dialogue? thank you. >> constanze? >> it's a good question. to be honest. and i think there are a number of things here that are in play. sanctions, the use of the

russian frozen assets as collateral for further expenditures on behalf of ukraine, ukraine's nato membership. to which we have paid lip service, but which i think is -- require some sort of commitment. of course, a security guarantee of whatever kind and a german friend of mine, commentator has said that security guarantee is a pompous word for weapon deliveries. at this point is a correct description of what we are talking about. there are still this proposal of putting european troops into the theater most notably endorsed. that's something that the russians oppose. to be completely honest here, i can envision a situation where

the europeans want to be more muscularly supported where the white house says that's not what we want and we are doing the opposite of that. where there may be quite unpleasant conversations between the white house and individual european countries on whether it was advisable for us to do what we are trying to do. i am not sure i think that will then be another sort of a decisive moment for the trans atlanta relationship which like the german chancellor i have grown up with and every german has a sort of - all europeans like to say they would like to have a special relationship with america. arguably, german feelings of america is a benevolent occupying and then midwife to not just the

reunification of germany, but the creation of europe. this is very hard for a country of 80 plus million germans to do just that this is no longer a benevolent relationship. this appears -- i would not call america an adversary or an enemy. but what we are certainly seeing is hostility. >> fiona, you get the last word today. >> one thing to bear in mind, to get to your question, is that this is a gold -- a global conflict. you have not mention that. we are closing the session after opening up a whole door. for most of the rest of the world, ukraine is a proxy conflict with the united states. china is supporting russia, north korea is supporting russia, north korean troops are in europe fighting in the course reach -- the kursk region against ukrainian troops.

we are always watching to see whether they are spilling over into ukraine. and iran is also supporting russia. you talked about she he drones. shaheed is obviously the uranian -- the iranian word. iranians are helping to construct drones on a mass scale in russia because the russians don't have the capability of doing that themselves at the moment, because of so many people at the front with this conflict. the peace talks president trump has called have been in saudi arabia. the middle eastern damage because of iran is very influential. one of the people involved in the talks is the head of the russian sovereign wealth fund who was behind the scenes involved in the abraham accords. are all kinds of linkages and points. south korea and japan have been supporting ukraine because the south koreans wondered if north korean troops are prepared or

exercising for some kind of action against south korea. japan is extraordinarily concerned about what the implications are of china supporting russia and all of this. as we talk about an negotiation between the united states and russia, we have left out all of these global dimensions as well. the chinese have told the ukrainians and i learned from one of the ukrainians -- ukrainian foreign ministers, this is not about you. it has never been about you. china was a mess of investor in ukraine before the war. they said, we will invest again when this is all over. because this is just about the united states. as we contemplate the way we have flipped on europe, there is a whole host of other discussions going on around the globe about what this war is, in the aftermath of it might be. north korea, will it turn its attention toward south korea? what will south korea and japan be facing? and will china really be the

beneficiary in some respects, the country that reconstructs ukraine, or also moves back basically into a relationship with europe at the munich security conference. there were several prominent chinese officials trying not to gloat over the rift between europe and the united states, but saying to the europeans that they -- we will be there for you, europe. when this is all over. but they have also, china being aiding and abetting, the largest land war in europe since world war ii. they were also on the other side of the war in world war ii, as well as seoul, to be continued, i think. >> indeed. we are going to leave it there. please join me in thanking our spectacular panel. and please, if you could remain in your seats while the panel evacuate's the room --

evacuate's the room and heads to a shelter underneath a local hospital. thank you to come stands, tyler, nastya and fiona. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] >> you should all download it, the first episode is now available. thank you for coming. >> on tuesday, testimony on the high-risk list of federal agencies most susceptible to waste, fraud and abuse. according to the comptroller general of the government cotability office, he is appearing as the trump administrati ctinues efforts to find wasteful spending. from the house overshtnd government reform committee, watch live at 1:00 p.m. eastern

on c-span three, c-span now, our fr mile video app, or online at c-span.org. announcer: democracy. it is not just an idea. it's a process. a process shaped by leaders, elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guards against basic principles. it is where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nations course is chartered. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span. giving you your democracy, unfiltered. announcer: c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan, and every purchase

helps promote our nonprofit organizations. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. announcer: conservative political activists gathered outside washington, d.c. for the annual conservative political action conference or cpac. we will hear from vice president jd vance, has bigger mike johnson and others. this is one hour and 50 minutes. >> good morning ladies and

gentlemen and welcome to cpac 2025. america is back on track. please welcome cpac senior fellow and chairman. [applause] ♪ >> i can't hear you. [muffled applause] >> there must be someone really special about to get on stage, right? >> we have some seats open here, pack it in. >> they are moving. >> what do you think about cpac 2025? are you glad that america is back on track? has it been a long, tedious four years?

are you ready to tell the whole world that america is ready to be america again? we have some announcements and some news. >> there was so much going on, we have a very special guest was going to be here during the conference. a tech titan may be. responsible for doge. yes, ladies and gentlemen, because thank god we are back to two genders, elon musk will be here on the cpac stage. [applause] we just launched yesterday with the cpac international summit where we had several key members coming from different countries

with their delegations where we passed three resolutions, matt. do you want to share what we did? >> we passed three resolutions in support with one of america's greatest allies, the state of israel. [applause] we were both saddened and honored to be joined by the families of those who have friends and family members as hostages by the evil hamas. >> and we have two of the hostages that were freed joining us today and i believe they are here, right here with us. >> god bless you. >> america stands with you, america stands with israel, and we will ensure that hamas is eradicated. we will bring peace to the middle east. under president trump. and then the second resolution.

>> it was hard for me to get over that, thank you for being here, you honor us with your presence. your courage and your strength. we have a president now in the united states of america that will not only help your loved ones, he's going to make it so that there aren't future leaders which we have to make sure we prevent, so thank you. gordon chang wrote a very important resolution. by the way, these resolutions were supported by all the nations that were assembled at our second annual cpac international summit. we are working not as government entities but as entities outside government to push for these policies and gordon chang wrote very important resolution to combat the chinese communist regime in china. and i want all of these desperate sent dictators to know that donald trump might talk to

you, he might make you feel like you are welcome because that is part of his job, but in the end, we have a president that is going to stop you cold in your tracks. and all of these countries accepted that resolution as well, and perhaps my favorite resolution, i wish i had it here to read to you on my phone, but i think i have the gist of it, which as we have a message to the globalists. last year we stood on this stage and we said globalism, at cpac globalism was going to die. we thought that was an audacious statement. let's just say it. and then it happened. it was kind of amazing. and so our message to the globalists is no matter whether you are at the world economic forum, w.h.o., the e.u., you can boo at any time.

the u.n. no matter who is trying to tell you as a mom or dad, as a church member, as a teacher, as a cop, no matter who is trying to tell you what pronouns you should use, how you should pray to your god, how much you believe your country is racist, all that is going. and this is a great way to start with it and the great pastor from arizona on the campaign trail, part of that is can we all just thank god for giving us a president -- >> amen. >> who knows how to lead? and i will expand that to a great, young vice president who knows how to lead. all these resolutions passed. i don't know how cpac became a global brand fighting the

globalists with people here from every country all over the world, but let's go with it because it seems to be working just fine. >> and i want to leave you with this. you are the reason because president trump is in the white house today. all of you, each and every one of you. you fought hard, stood up, shared this incredible optimistic message that we need to save america and in essence, save the world. so i want to thank you will personally from the bottom of our heart for being part of this incredible cpac family because you all have made the difference in this past election. >> it's true. >> so we honor you, we appreciate you so much. >> so we've talked long enough. i think you have someone big that you want to announce. i will be in the wings. >> ok dad, all right.

all right gang, are you already? so there is this young guy with this beautiful family, this beautiful wife that is actually just a shining star right now in politics. marine veteran, former ohio senator. one of the coolest guys i think we have around, and one of the best communicators in the trump administration. can you please let us applaud together, let us welcome the greatest vice president of america, jd vance. ♪ >> what is up, how are we doing?

thanks for doing this. thank you all. thank you. >> [scattered chanting of u.s.a .] >> great to be with you, good to see you. >> are you a little jetlagged or no? >> yes, i am a little jetlagged. we did a trip where we went to france and then germany and then san diego for a family wedding, back in d.c. we did all that in like seven days. i'm in a good place right now. i got some sleep last night. >> it is a real special day today. you know what today is? february 20.

that means our first 30 days. happy one month anniversary of the trump-pence administration. i mean, how exciting is that? >> it's very exciting. hard to believe we've only been in office for a month because i think we've done more in a month than i did in about four years and thank god for that. but the president keeps us on a pretty breakneck pace. he always asks what have we done today, what are we doing tomorrow and next week. and he realizes this is a special moment in time. by the way, thanks to all of you for making it possible for us to do all the good work we've been doing in the administration. i know we wouldn't be here without you but i think the president is acutely aware that the american people give us a window to save the country and that is exactly what we are going to do, and thank god for that. >> i don't even think we can

keep track of all the things you guys are doing. i don't even know if the press can keep track of all they are doing. talk it the shock and all strategy. when you were looking at this list after list after list, what stands out to you? >> i do think we have big more executive orders than cnn has viewers tonight, so hello to our friends at cnn. i actually think that their plan was they were going to go all in on anti-trump and hope that he could save cnn in the same way that he did frankly in 2017 because nobody really watched the network until he became president in 2017. that's may be the one thing i think the president has been unable to do, unable to save cnn ratings over the last few months. but i think that what the president has tried to do is recognize that we have a historical mandate. we have to secure the southern border and thanks to his

actions, border crossings are down well over 90% and just getting started. he recognizes that we have to really unlock the engine of american growth. we have to get back to having a growing economy, some good jobs and high wages for the american people, and a lot of that goes back to drill, baby, drill. we've done more on energy under trump leadership and i think any administration in history. that is not exaggeration. and the third thing he's tried to do of course, with the help of elon musk and all the great folks at doge is asked what are we doing with all of the american taxpayers money, and why are we wasting so much of it on garbage that the american people either are not aware of or don't want to be spending it on in the first place? for example, the stuff that we figured out, why are we spending money on progressive modern art projects centered around toilets

in afghanistan? that is actually something that your tax dollars are funding until very recently. i think all of us are asking what the hell are we doing with the american people's money for the last four years? let's turn off the spigot and spend the american people's tax money on the american people's priorities, and that has been a big focus of the administration. >> let's dig deeper into the immigration issue. we see that many of the victims, people who have family members who have died, tragically murdered. those angel families, illegal aliens. what is your message to these families, and what is your message to these horrific drug cartels and human traffickers who have preyed on the most vulnerable? >> well our message to the drug traffickers is get the hell out of our country, your free ride

is over because president trump is back in the oval office. [applause] you are not welcome, you were never welcome according to the american people, but unfortunately you had president joe biden who allowed you to run free over the united states of america and donald trump has said your terrorist organizations, we are going to go after you, and certainly we want you out of the united states of america and that is an important message of course. our message, and you know this, our message to the families is president trump cares about you. he thinks it is disgraceful what your own government let happen to your children and grandchildren and it has got to stop. and of course we pray for people, but we are also asking if their government why did this happen to your child in the first place? the answer is that under joe biden your government didn't do its job and donald trump does his. thank god for that.

>> on the economy, and i get this question all the time, this question about affordability. there's a lot of stress on our families. something that i think joe biden could not manage in terms of really helping lower that cost by making things something more affordable. we talked about energy independence being critical and ensuring that we unleash this economic prosperity. what more needs to be done? >> one of the first interviews i did, six or seven days after inauguration and somebody asked me well it has been six days, when are you going to fix the inflation crisis created by joe biden? i'm like first of all, it's been six days, we've done a lot, but it's going to take some time to fix what joe biden broke over four years. and we know it is easy unfortunately to burn the house down. it takes a little bit of time to build it back up.

here's what we have to do. because the fundamental goal of our immigration policy, of our border policy, of doge, the fundamental goal is we want your children and grandchildren to be able to raise a family in comfort in the country that we all love. that is the whole goal of president trump's agenda. safety and prosperity. it is pretty common sense stuff, and we know that to do that we have to first of all unleash american energy. why is that so important? we all know grocery prices got too high under joe biden's leadership. one of the main drivers of groceries is energy because the farmers are paying more for energy and we are all paying more for what the farmers are doing. the truck drivers were delivering the groceries are paying more for fuel, so we are all paying more for what the truck drivers get at the store. if we unleash american energy,

that will drive down the cost for the american people. the second thing is we have got to stop spending the american people's money on garbage. every dollar that we take in and spend you have to pay for, either through taxes or through inflation. spend money, if we stop taxing and spending indefinitely, that is also a great relief to all of the rising pressures that are out there. we are slim to make it affordable to live in this country again. that is our mandate, that is our goal. it is more than we can do but i think we got a pretty good start. >> we've got a pretty good start, but we've got this big, beautiful one build budget of reconciliation scenario. how was that working, what are the dynamics happening right now in congress, and what it ministration is doing to ensure that a lot of what the president is wanting to do in terms of

really pushing forward with economic prosperity and his tax relief initiatives gets done? >> it's really important. the senate obviously has its own approach and the present has beerclr that his preference is to put everything in one. and part of that is simple legislator strategy. i think the president has learned a lot about how d.c. works. i talked to him about this yesterday and he said to me look, it is very rare you can get two reconciliation bills done in one congress, which is why he think we got to do a lot with that one big beautiful bill, that first reconciliation packet of you're going to get through the house and senate. it is going well. it is early, this stuff takes time to put together. i think if you had a record pace reconciliation bill, we could get this thing done in may or june. i think we are on track to do that but we've got to do some basic things. like i said, we got to continue to unleash american energy. we've got to make sure that

other countries stop taking advantage of us. that's a big part of president trump's tariff policy as we got to stop being taken advantage of. of course we want to make the president trump tax cuts permanent and extend them into the future. one no taxes on tips. got to do some of things we talked about during the campaign. and then finally, and this is really important, everything the president has done on the border, we have got to empower him to do it not just for a month, but for the next four years, and we got to hire more border patrol agents. we got to give stephen miller and kristi noem the resources they need to secure the border. not to return to the border but i think so many other issues come back to the border because if you take 30 million, 40 million illegal aliens, you take medicare for all, social security for all, why are we taking people people's social security payments and giving it

to illegal aliens? no that is happening in the u.s. today, we got to stop it. if you get control of the border, you do more to control the fiscal problem and the financial problems that we have in this country than almost anything. get illegal aliens out of our country, make sure american tax dollars go to american people. that is how you solve the fiscal crisis in the united states of america. >> shifting to your incredible speech at the munich conference, did you all watch that? [applause] >> i don't know. i think they really -- >> i'm glad you guys liked it, not everybody liked it. [applause] >> thank you.

ok, ok. >> i'll take a standing ovation for a speech i already gave. >> here's your speech, just say it again. it was fascinating because there was obviously some of these european leaders who were a little uptight about it. just a little bit. but you talked about the greatest threats to the world. >> the greatest threat in europe, and i would say it was the greatest threat in the united states until about 30 days ago is that we have the leaders of the west side that they should send millions and millions of unvented foreign migrants into their countries. that is the biggest threat to europe and frankly, it remains

the biggest threat to the united states because yes, we got four years of president trump leadership, but i guarantee you if the democrats ever get empower again they are going to try to do it again. we cannot rebuild western civilization, we cannot rebuild the united states of america or europe by letting millions and millions of unvented and illegal migrants come into our country, it has to stop. thank god it stop here, but it's got to stop there. and a related issue, mercedes, you can't just stop it, you have to allow european people, and the american people to raise issues about it. you have to allow free speech to debate this stuff. you have to stop doing things to the populations of the world, you've got to get the populations of the world the opportunity to speak up and say no more of this, we want borders, we want sovereignty, we

want to be able to speak our own mind in our own country. i guarantee if we don't allow free speech, and of course the biden administration did more to destroy free speech not just in the united states, but also in europe than any administration in american history. i'm not even blaming the europeans. i'm actually saying you followed the lead of joe biden into censorship and mass migration. follow the lead of donald j. trump and that is free speech, borders and sovereignty. that is the future for our shared civilization. [applause] >> and i will tell you something that is really, truly remarkable that is happening at cpac is that we had our second cpac international summit yesterday. we have many of these european, conservative european leaders with us today where we stand in solidarity because they have an

opportunity to basically make europe great again, make asia great again, make latin america great again. and so in essence, i think your message was very well received by many of those conservative leaders ross the globe. but what does this mean that the u.s. getting that speech? what does this mean with the u.s.' relationship? >> obviously we are going to continue to have important alliances with europe really do think the strength of those alliances is going to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction. think about this. there were thousands upon thousands of american troops in germany. do you get thrown in jail in germany for posting a mean tweet? of course not. the point i'm trying to make,

that friendship is based on shared values. you do not have shared values if you're jailing people, you do not have shared values if you cancel elections because you don't like the results, and that happened in romania. you do not have shared values if you are so afraid of your own people that you silenced them and shut them up. so let's have shared values. let's defend democracy, let's have free expression and not just in the united states but all over the western world. that is the path to strong alliances in europe. [applause] >> we had ambassador ric grenell with us yesterday, he will the on the cpac stage. he has like three jobs. let me ask you this. where are we on basically the status of the russia-ukraine

moving forward? in bringing peace to this? >> it's early, and what makes president trump such an effective negotiator, i've seen this in private, is that he doesn't take anything off the table. he wants into a negotiation he says everything is on the table. and of course that makes the heads explode of the american media because they say why are you talking to russia? well how are you going to end the war of us were talking to russia, you've got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting if you ask the want to bring the conflict to a close. and i know the president does. but i will tell you the goals that animate his policy and it is really simple. he wants the killing to stop, he wants to bring lasting peace to europe. he doesn't just want to stop it now and have the war restart a month from now. he wants to bring lasting peace to europe because the president believes this and he is absolutely right, peace is in the interest of russia, in the

interest of ukraine, in the interest of europe, but most importantly peace is in the interest of the american people and he is going to fight for it for the remainder of his administration. wherever war breaks out he is going to be the president of peace. now, he of course is a very good negotiator, a very good businessman. he recognizes that a lot of these issues are tough, it's going to take a smart statesman to figure this stuff out, but we've got that at the white house and i really believe that we are on the cusp of peace in europe for the first time in three years because we have leadership from the oval office that we haven't had in four years in this country. [applause] >> matt and i mentioned this right will be started, we are honored by the presence of two hostages that were free after the hamas atrocities that we'd seen happen, and we have several family members who are still

there. [applause] their loved ones are still being... detained by hamas. [applause] what is your message to these hostage families and these survivors? >> error message is that president trump loves you, he hasn't forgotten your loved ones and he is going to fight every single day to bring them home. that is exactly what he has been doing and that is what he will keep on doing. [applause] i was actually talking with one of my best friends about this a couple of days ago -- >> can i be your best friend? i think we all want to be your best friend, right? >> i was talking to him and he was asking, he was like, i don't understand why was biden unable to do this? and then the minute the donald trump won we started to make

progress in bringing a hostages home and i said man, it's just a question of leadership. you actually need a president who is willing to pick up the phone and say you've got to bring these people home, we are not focused on that craft right now, we are focused on bringing hostages home. and then when the negotiations hit a wall because they always do, you need a president who picked up the phone and says cut this crap out, we've got to make progress and you've got to keep that pace going. it is leadership, it really is. and i saw it behind the scenes. and what the president did, remember, this was before we were inaugurated, before we had our great secretary of state marco rubio or any of the great people around us. the president sent his dear friend who has become my dear friend steve with off as an emissary of the president of the united states and he said steve, you speak for me, get it done and if there are problems, pick up the phone and call me. steve wycoff got it done and it

is amazing. and of course we still got work to do, we've got to finish the process, but i really believe the president is going to keep on fighting for it. >> one of the issues central to the cpac community is --. what is the administration going to do to defend, to provide support for those mothers, this father's the cheese that? >> one of the things the president got done during the first term, i think it is why he is accurately called the most pro-life president in american history, is he finally made it possible for the will of the people to speak on the life issue. the dobbs decision, what that did is it gave the abortion question back to the people. it took it out of the hands of

unelected bureaucrats and unelected judges and give it back to the people. and i think the most important thing that we can do, because as you know i'm very pro-life, i'm a devout christian, is that we have got to persuade our fellow americans, because now we've got the power. we've got the power of persuasion, we've got to persuade our fellow citizens that unborn life is worthy of protecting. it is secret in the eyes of god and it should be sacred in the eyes of man. and we have to pick up the torch and fight for that every single day. and i know you guys are up for the task. i am too. and i think on the administration side, or the president has said, and it has been consistent, it is going to be consistory -- consistent and the rhetoric and policy, is we believe in the trump administration that babies are good, that families are good and we want to make it easier for young moms and dads to choose life, to start families and to bring new life into the world.

that is the whole point of our policy. now, some of that of course is supporting a great crisis pregnancy centers at the moment of these important health care decisions, encouraging young women to choose life at that important moment of choice. some of that is bringing costs down so that young moms and dads don't look to the future and a new baby and say how can i afford this? and if they are able to actually afford to raise a family, maybe they will start thinking of babies as the blessings that we all know that they are. [applause] i think fundamentally, this is going to take a lot of leadership from the president on down, and from everything a person in this room. we got to persuade our fellow citizens to stop thinking about babies as inconveniences to be discarded, we've got to start thinking of them as blessings to cherish, and that is exactly what i promise.

[applause] >> now we are going to get personal. this has been so fun. your faith. why is it so important to you? what does it mean to you? tell us why when you go every single day to work, how faith is part of who you are. >> first is i believe the fundamental tenet of the christian faith is not just a set of good moral principles, the fundamental tenant of our faith is that the son of god became man, he died, and he raised himself from the dead. that is the fundamental tenet of the christian faith. so much flows from that. one lesson that flows from that is that we shouldn't fear death. of course death is a very bad thing, but there are much more terrible things. then just losing one's life when

more importantly you could lose one's soul. and i think whether it is fighting for the unborn or fighting for peace and security for our citizens, i want us to be the kind of society where my kids can grow up to be the virtuous young people and good, young christians, because that is what i'm trying to raise them to be, and that is what our public policy is trying to do. creating the moms and dads can raise their children in their faith to become good young people who believe the things that i do. that is what i'm trying to create, if the space for you of course to raise your children as you see fit, but the space for me to raise my kids to be the kind of young people that i think they ought to be. and the other thing that i take from it, mercedes, if you look at the long history of the christian faith, it's been around for about 2000 years now, give or take a few, and there have been really dark times in the history of the christian

faith, there has been really good times in the history of the christian faith. and i just try to remind myself that we put our faith in god above, we put our faith in the grace of god, and we tried the best to do his will and we don't worry so much about whether we are going to have earthly rewards, we worry about whether we are doing right by god almighty above. that is what i try to do and that is how i try to run my life in public. [applause] >> you mentioned raising these children into good people and also good citizens. that is a tribute to society and to the world. we had so many young people come out and support donald trump and jd vance this past election, so what message? what is your message to the young men? >> i guess my message to young people generally as we are trying to make your life better.

that is the simple thrust of president trump's policy is we want you to be able to buy a home. we want you to be able to work a good job, raise your kids according to the values that you believe in, and we want you to be able to build a nice life in this country all of us love. that is what we are trying to do. and you guys more than anyone, more than me. i'm talking about people under the age of 30 in particular, you guys are going to have to deal with the consequences of good policy or of bad policy for much longer than the rest of us. and i want you guys to think about the future and ask yourself, do you want safe communities, do you want a prosperous life, do you want to be able to work a good job or do you want that job shipped off to china or somewhere else? we want you to be able to help fight for us because we've got to win. not just the policy battles of the next couple of months, we've got to win the midterm elections

in a couple of years. we recognize that we need you and we are fighting for you every single day. you asked me, my message to young men is i think that our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine third -- verge, you should try to cast aside your family, you should try to suppress what makes you a gunman in the first place, and i think that my message to young men is don't allow this broken culture to send you a message that you are a bad person because you are a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends or because you are competitive. [applause] >> [laughter] >> our message, the cultural message, and i think the

president and mind is the exact opposite, but our cultural message is i think that it wants different everybody, whether male or female into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same and act the same. we actually think god made male and female for a purpose and we want you guys to thrive as young man and as young women, and we are going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do that. [applause] and by the way, i actually think this is the thing that president trump, this is why the media went after him so hard, is because i think about what is the essence of masculinity, we could answer this in so many different ways, when i think about me and my guy friends, we really like to tell jokes to one another. we like to laugh. >> are you saying you are pretty funny? >> i'm trying to be. >> you are president trump, who

is funnier? >> president trump, he's got the best sense of humor of any american political figure. they are so inspired by him because he doesn't allow media to tell him can't make a joke we can't have an urge. that is a dam good thing and it is a good example to set for young men in politics. >> i always tell my five dollars, i don't have any sons, but i have five beautiful daughters and i always say the most important decision you'll ever make is who you marry. you made a very good decision. >> i married up. [light applause] >> what is the best advice she has given you? >> wow. >> this is so fun, ok. >> one piece of advice she gave

me like a week ago was you nicer on social media. some advice is good, it can be good but you don't have to always take it. >> you sound like my husband. >> the best advice she ever gave me, she gives me so much good life advice, that the best advice she gave me when it came to politics is don't let them filter you. and in politics, you got consultants and you got media professionals, you've got a lot of people who try to tell you what to say or how to behave or what to do, and when she just said just be yourself, be authentic, go out there and say what is actually on your mind. i think that is the best advice that she gave me and i think that is why we take our kids everywhere and why i'm not afraid to make a joke on social media even if it is sometimes a

dad joke. forgive me, all of you who don't like dead jokes. but you've just got to be yourself. and i think that is president trump's superpower and probably the best advice she ever gave me at least on politics. >> last question. what inspires you? >> will, one is my family. i mean, i am blessed to have a seven-year-old, a five-year-old and i can't help but see the country through their eyes. and when you're on the campaign in particular and we would take our kids with us, all of my kids when we were about to land, they would all rush to the window, they would look out and say this looks so cool, the beauty of the arizona cactuses in the arizona desert. we would be in texas for a fundraiser and they would say look at just all of that open space. or we would be in north carolina and say look at how beautiful

the green mountains. the idea of these beautiful green mountains in appalachia, north carolina. love north carolina. and they cancel inspires me is you can't help but the hopeful and energetic and optimistic about this country when you see it through the eyes of a child. so i hope i never lose that perspective because it does inspire me. >> well mr. vice president, you inspire us every day. we are praying for you, we are praying for your family and praying for this incredible administration and of course the president, and we are honored that you are here with our cpac family. >> and i'm honored to be here. i love you guys, thank you. ♪

the world to our lord and savior. god bless you. >> ladies and gentlemen, up next, hails from the crypto, bit coin, and the digital economy. please welcome strategy executive, chairman, and co-founder, michael sailor and cpac board member christos.

♪ >> good morning, everyone. what about that speech from our vice president? and our great mercedes. i'm not as good as a moderator as mercedes. michael turned to me and said man, she's good. mike, i'm not that good. christos: good morning, everyone. thank you so much for being here. it's an honor to be here at cpac, monitoring one of the most critical discussions of our time, the future of bit coin, digital assets, and financial freedom. we are witnessing a once in a generation transformation how people store and transfer wealth and value and today i have the privilege of introducing a man who didn't just predict the future of money, he's helping

build it. in 2020 as governments printed trillions of dollars, which weakened our u.s. dollar, one c.e.o. made history. michael saylor became the first c.e.o. of the first publicly traded company to transfer his entire balance sheet from cash into bit coin. historic. that's incredible. that's risk. he is the largest single holder of bit coin in the world, owning $478,000, 740 bit coin, now worth $48 billion. michael just didn't talk about bit coin, he bet on it, he built on it and led the way for corporations, investors, and people like me and you to invest and remain sovereign. he remains one of the largest voice in technological history and understands bit coin is a

revolution america has to dominate. please join me in welcoming one of the most dominant and fearless minds in our future, the leader of digital freedom and a trail blazer, michael saylor. [applause] michael: thanks for the intro. i'm really excited to address this group today because i think bit coin represents the most powerful technology force for conservatives in the world. i don't know that's fully appreciated but satoshi many years ago had this vision for sound money and sovereign money via technology, via modern cryptography, modern semi conductors, the modern internet. and that idea of giving economic power to the individual in the face of the overwhelming power

of the collected. when you feel the government is against you, money is against but, currency is against you, big tech is against you. when you're the little guy and struggling for freedom and struggling in the face of overwhelming power, you need some advantage. and satoshi traded this network that's based on two principles, one principle is integrity and the other principle is sovereignty. the integrity we all know, there never will be more than 21 million bit coin and that's enforced by millions and millions of computers and hundreds of millions of people everywhere in the world that believe it's not ok to lie, cheat, and steal. it's not ok to distort the truth. there is a truth. there is a universal common ledger that no one can tamper

with and no one can corrupt. not a nation state, not a company, not a politician. and that idea of a censorship resistant unstoppable version of the truth was a first in human history. and then the second idea of sovereignty is like, well, if there is a truth, can you own it? with bit coin, the idea is you can own a bit coin and you don't have to trust the bank with it or trust the city with it. you don't have to leave it in the custody of a big country. you can take self-custody. we often say what do you own? the only thing you own are memories. everything else in the world you own, you own at the pleasure of someone more powerful than you and can take it away from you via force. what they can't take away from you is your experience and what's in your head.

and the brilliance of satoshi was what if we could put all the money in the world into the heads of the people? what if what you knew was the password to unlock all of your wealth and protect it and nobody else could take it away from you? and that's a profound shift and what satoshi did was give us a network hundreds of millions of people can own and control their economic energy in a censorship resistant unstoppable fashion. and that was an idea worth nothing for a year and then it became worth a million and then worth a billion and then it became worth $10 billion and then $100 billion. and when micro strategy, now strategy got in the business four years ago, it's worth $150 billion and today it's worth $2

trillion. christos: and at that time you were a software company and saw it as a different opportunity? michael: we were a software company and we were staring at a quick death or slow death or take a risk. and, you know, when the covid lockdowns took place and the interest rates went to zero, we had to decide, were we going to sell the company and throw in the towel, or could we find a way out? this is a challenge that 40 million companies in america have. if you're not one of the magnificent seven and europe not microsoft or google, how are you to compete in a world where trillion dollar companies have the power and big banks and government have the power. and bit coin offered us a way out. because if you recapitalize the company on bit coin, you're not

slave to the bank, you're not slave to the currency, you're not slave to the local politician that tells you what you can do and how you can use your money. instead of having the central bank take interest rates to zero and keep them there forever, bit coin gave us a 60% return every year because the bit coin interest rate is set by a global decentralized system of capital flows. so my company was able to save itself when we switched from the u.s. treasury or the bond to bit coin, our market cap increased from $1 billion to $100 billion. and our enterprise value increased from $600 million to $105 billion. and we went from a $500 million company growing 0% a year competing against a monopoly, microsoft, where it's hopeless, to a $50 billion company growing

60% a year that's part of the digital economy. so is i feel blessed. and we are very fortunate. but that really motivated me with a mission. and what i realized is, satoshi gave us a way out of our conundrum. satoshi gave us a strategy that makes a small company big and powerful, that makes the individual more powerful than the state, that turns the power balance between the collective and the individual on its head. and the secret to that is this powerful worldwide network that puts the individual first that's uncorruptible that anybody can join that gives you unfettered, uncensored property rights.

christos: to that point, i spent the last couple days preparing for this and had a list of questions for michael, and about 10 minutes before we sat down on the stage, and he goes let's talk about why bit coin is conservative. let's talk about why this is your coin and this is your industry. so michael, how is bit coin conservative and why should it be important to this audience, the largest conservative conference in the world? michael: bit coin literally represents the conservation of energy and cyberspace. satoshi entered a protocol which is inherently conservative. if i send bit coin to you, i lose it, you have it, i can't create more, i can't lie about it. the thing that's beautiful about nature is conservation of energy. conservatism is based on natural law. it's based on the idea if you just make something up that isn't true, you'll be punished. and the bit coin network

represents that innate integrity and truth. is so, you know, if you think about the world today, there's just an inherent force. there's a struggle between capitalism and socialism, between people that believe in freedom and free markets and those that believe in central planning and collectivism. and if i'm a socialist, i want to take away your guns and your money. and bit coin is money they can't take away. what freedom do you have if you have all of your money in a bank that can freeze it? what freedom do you have if you have your money embedded in a currency where someone can take more of it without your approval and debase it to zero. what freedom do you have where

you own real estate in a city and the governor can tax it away from your family? what freedom do you have if all your wealth is in a business where the government can tell you that you can't operate, shut down your pipeline, tax your employees, tax your income, regulate your product. and the answer is, you only have conditional freedom until the government changes and they just take away that freedom. and then when they take away your wealth, they take away your economic power, they're going to starve you to death and then you've got nothing. so bit coin represents putting your economic wealth in cyberspace. it's beyond the reach of the mayor, beyond the reach of the governor, beyond the reach of any nation state, beyond the reach of any other company that would do you harm. it is the first time in the history of the human race you

can bind economic energy to an individual, to a family, to your company, and you don't have to ask permission to have economic wealth, to have money, and you don't have to live in fear that someone gets up in a morning and just takes it all away from you to power you down. so if i am conservative, i want a family, i want a company, i want freedom. well, how are you going to pay for it? and if you live in a country like venezuela and the currency goes to zero, you're going to be begging for food next week, wouldn't it be great if i could take the wealth of my family and put it into a network that no one can loop, no one can corrupt, and at the end of the day, i don't want to gamble my future. i don't want to take my life's savings and gamble in the stock

market. i don't want to take my life's savings and gamble the mayor of the city won't just take my property away from me. i actually just want to own the wealth. i want to own my money. and bit coin is a way for you to convert your capital into digital capital that will last a thousand years. your company will be your company and your family will be wealthy for generations to follow. you don't have to live in fear. and when you don't have to live in fear, when you have economic independence, you can actually stretch your time out and you can build an institution. you can build your family. you can build a life for yourself. crist joyce: michael, you talked about several things there. one is wealth, sovereignty, agency, the ability to come in and for someone, a mayor, a city

councilman, to take what you have and we've seen it happen from new york to california. a lot of us have been subject to this. and then you also talk about leadership. we have president trump, the greatest leader our nation has ever had. he's compared to george washington. people love him. we love him. he sees bit coin, he sees the digital asset industry as an exceptional opportunity. how can america ensure its dominance moving forward? michael: this country became great because of the louisiana purchase. we built a third of the country from napoleon for a few dollars and then purchased texas and california from the mexicans for a few million more and then purchased alaska from the russians for a few million more. we didn't even know there would be a trillion dollars of mineral rights under alaska when we purchased it and they called it

stewart's folly but what i'm describing is manifest destiny. if you want to create a great nation, you have to build it on valuable property. you have to know where is the money headed, where is the future? when we bought california, we didn't know there would be a hollywood or a silicon valley. no one really -- in 1867, we didn't have a petroleum industry. so where is the money headed in the future? the money is headed to cyberspace. bit coin is property in cyberspace. the manifest destiny in this country is to own cyberspace. i think president trump understands the value of owning scares desirable property. if we go to cyberspace and we buy bit coin and the nation embraces bit coin, all the chinese money and european money

and all the money from the 20th century, the money invested in a siberian warehouse, the money invested in -- fill in the blank, anything you possibly could own in africa, all that capital is flowing into cyberspace and going from physical to digital and flowing from the 20th century to the 21st century. the 21st century will be a billion a.i.'s thinking a million times a second and what are they going to be using to move their money around? they're going to use digital money because they can't get a bank account, they can't get a credit card. i have to approve my wire transfers from my bank once a week. it takes about 20 minutes and they ask me on the phone whether the money should move. christos: it's a good problem, it's 478,000 bit coin, michael. you don't feel too bad is what i'm trying to say. michael: i get it. but my point is we've been doing

it that way for 50 years. and if you look the way the digital economy will run in the 21st century, it's going to be a billion computers thinking a million times a second moving assets at the speed of light. bit coin represents digital capital. that network is $2 trillion today. it's going to be $20 trillion in 4-8 years. it's going to be $200 trillion in 20 years. then it's going to grow faster than every other asset in the world. it's going to continue to grow. the united states should own it, right? christos: is that the conversation? talk to us about the u.s. bit coin reserve. we heard a couple other coins being yelled out by the crowd and people want to know, are we going to have a u.s. bit coin reserve and when is that going to happen? michael: the way to think about bit coin is, it's the most powerful digital network in the

world. it is cyberpower. if you want to dominate the next 100 years, like the last hundred years is based upon dominating sea power, firepower, you know, airpower, space power, nuclear power, you want to dominate cyberspace. you want cyberpower. it's the unstoppable network that no one can corrupt and the use among the unstoppable network among other things is hundreds of trillions of dollars of capital moving from point a to point b. but the other use of the network is i can send a message which is unstoppable and i can store information that is unstoppable and i can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the authenticity of an instruction or document. no country, no company, no

individual, not a trillion computers can corrupt that message. so if you want to own the future, you want to own cyberspace. how do you own cyberspace? you own bit coin and then you run the bit coin network. you mine bit coin, you own bit coin. president trump understands property and understands the value of green land and understands the value of alaska and understands the value of oil rights. drill, baby, drill would be impossible if we didn't own the land, right? christos: he understands american dominance. michael: land is physical property. when i run electricity through semi conductors and i create a wall of encrypted energy, i create digital property. bit coin is digital property. you should own it, your company should own it, our nation should own it. it is the future.

christos: in your perspective, how soon will we be buying bit coin and have in our u.s. reserve in a time line, 12 months, 24 months? michael: i think there's an appreciation of the power of bit coin throughout the house and throughout the senate. there will be a political process in which we build consensus with the white house, the house, the senate, and the cabinet and find the right way through. but what i'd say on this topic is the u.s. can own 20% of the network like that for free. the dollar would strengthen and the nation would be enriched and the real promise is it you own four to six million bit coin, you're going to pay off the entire national debt. you're going to neutralize it. we can generate adds 50 trillion to $80 trillion benefit to the united states people, to the citizens, to the taxpayers, and we can do it simply by seeing the future.

it costs $6 million to buy alaska. the payoff was $1 trillion. like right now you can literally buy it for a song and dance. that's the opportunity. the risk is that you wouldn't want the saudis to buy it first or the russians or the chinese or the europeans. and there's only room for one nation state to buy up 20% of the network. and obviously i think it should be the united states. i think it will be the united states. it's a way to merge as the economic leader in cyberspace in the digital economy for the next hundred years. if we do that, every one of our allies will follow us and then all of our enemies will end up having to buy into the network once it passes 10 million or 20

million a coin and they will enrich us. christos: we saw it yesterday where president trump was in miami talking about bitcoin. the bitcoin reserve is a touchy subject. a lot of people want to know what other coins in the digital asset industry will be involved? the u.s. doesn't just hold gold and oil in our reserve, it holds up to 27 other trace minerals, so we're completely diversified. do you see room for another digital asset to be included in the bitcoin reserve, or the u.s. financial reserve system? michael: the key thing to keep in mind right now is bitcoin is a commodity. it's an asset without an issuer. there is no company, no individual, no country, no entity that can corrupt it. it has reached scape -- escape velocity and it's a truth virus, a monetary virus, it has been

embraced by a trillion dollars of smart money. that is a trillion dollars of real money has been invested in the network. it is 99% of the digital power on earth. it's fairly unstoppable. and so if you're going to capitalize a company or country, you want to capitalize it on property or a commodity or a network which is beyond the point where anybody could change the nature of it. and so that makes bitcoin the most certain thing in the digital universe. christos: when you talk about certainty and when you talk about truth, over the past four years, we've experienced as a culture travesty. we haven't been able to speak. we've been censored. how does bitcoin -- what is bitcoin to you? what do you see that others don't? and how can conservatives capitalize on the opportunity to take advantage and make sure that america is dominating our future, that we have the

economic freedoms, that our children and families in america will stay as the frontrunner of this industry? michael: what i would say to everybody in this room, if you want freedom, if you want liberty, if you want to live your finest life, you're going to need economic power. you need physical power. you need political power. but you need economic power. bitcoin represents economic armor. when you put on the suit of armor, then no mayor, no government, no collectivist, no socialist can debank you. they can't take your money away. they can't impoverish you. just like a gun is a deterrent, bitcoin is a deterrent. if you have wealth in bitcoin, you have the option to move it to any jurisdiction and you can keep it and no one can take it

away from you by a force of violence no matter where you are on earth. so, satoshi gave us an opportunity. i hope i intrigue all of you with the opportunity and you go do the research and determine for yourself how you benefit from it. but i just leave you with a thought that bitcoin is economic armor. christos: you have, michael. thank you. god willing we have as much bitcoin as michael one day. this is a defining moment for digital assets, a defining moment for our country. we thank all of you. michael, thanks so much for joining us. cpac is going to be at the front of the digital asset industry. we see bitcoin and the entire industry as a significant research for our country and our people. thank you, everyone. god bless america. michael: thank you. ♪ ♪

>> good morning, cpac. how is everyone doing? it's a wonderful time to be in d.c. it is my 16th cpac. congressman comer, how many for you? twice. good. we're here to talk to you about a number of things but most importantly one of the most pressing issues of our time and that's the weaponization of the federal government against its

citizens and we have no one better here today to talk about this than these two. alleynea, let's talk with you, you went from working with president trump as a private citizen and in the white house to see how the government is being used to thwart his agenda through the courts. take us through the journey of your experience. >> i say i'm happy not to be in a courtroom for once and have president trump where he's supposed to be, in that oval office. so thank god for that. my journey has been a strange one for an attorney. i always say this, you should not know who somebody's lawyer is. that should not happen in this country. fortunately for us, because we're fixing it now, they really took a misstep in their calculations when they used

courtrooms and a.g.'s to take down the election. when we won the most sweeping mandate i thought it was over. and i thought it was a lot because of what they did with law fair. and then we got to the white house and we started doing exactly what america voted for us to do, cleaning up, getting rid of bureaucrats making money on taxpayer dollars, doing all the things we promised and then again came the law fair and i feel that i'm right at home. >> welcome to washington, we're happy to have you. alina: the desperation was something i thought would end when the american people spoke so loudly november 5 and they have not and become more desperate and we have them singing in new york and chuck schumer holding beer cans.

>> they're a little rudderless. and senator comer, you're on one of the most important committees we have on capitol hill. you've been working for years to expose the way the biden administration was attacking not just donald trump but also the american people who support him and if you look what happened under barack obama where they used the i.r.s. to go after conserve pitchtives, it's not something that just started but been embedded in the federal government by the left. now you've been through the process of doing oversight with the biden administration, how are you now working in the trump administration with a new government and republican control to really try these things where americans aren't punished for having certain political views. sen. comer: i had conversations with kash patel who in a matter of a couple hours will be the next f.b.i. director.

our staff has communicated with bondi's staff and we've given them specific instances where bureaucrats have abused their power. they do things and when they get caught nothing happens. and what our company wants to work on the trump administration is holding these deep state bureaucrats accountable. at the very least they lose their job and hopefully get drug in for a deposition. at the end of the day, we've never seen a more weaponized federal government, not just the judiciary but the entire federal government, it's the i.r.s., it's the f.b.i., c.i.a., and other agencies, the e.p.a. has been weaponized. and all the people trump put in office are disrupters and i strongly support them and at the end of the day he'll get every one of his nominees affirmed.

we'll work with them and jim jordan's committee will work with them and we want to get rid of these bureaucrats and allow president trump to pass his agenda the american people gave him a mandate to pass. katie: during the election, one of the big slogans from the left is we have to do this for the sake of democracy and it's becoming more and more apparent as the trump administration gets underway with president trump's direction, it was really about protecting the bureaucracy. so alina, the president has signed more executive orders than any president in history in his first month in office. today is the anniversary -- the monthivers a ry the new office took over. he signed these executive orders but has to have help from the federal government and capitol hill to implement them and now you're seeing a number of judges trying to get involved to stop his use of executive authority. can you talk about the judges continuing their law fair and

whether they actually have standing when it comes to blunting some of these orders and saying he doesn't have the power in the executive branch to do what he's doing? alina: yeah, of course. it's a lot like what i spoke about before. this is desperate times for them. i say if you're going to fix a car and looking under the hood, how can you fix it? we're taking a good hard look under the hood where the money was spent, how it was spent and they are taxing elon, and we were discussing this, it's so baseless and ridiculous, the fact they're upset -- yesterday governor hochul in new york will fight our administration for stopping congestion pricing. but in new york it's ruining tourism and stopping people who work there driving to work. their subways are not safe.

these people care more about the next election and their face on tv than the people they represent, the constituents that voted for them to do the work. unfortunately, they've taken that to the court. we've seen it. we've won. we always win or keep winning. even token said it, if they had it our way, their guy would be in jail and didn't happen and yet we won in the most profound way. the american people are happy with what we're doing and the amount of executive orders we are pummeling on them is because we have that much work to do. we have to correct four years very quickly, very quickly, and we're all committed to win and we're going to keep winning. katie: congressman, you want to weigh in on the control capitol hill has with republican control in washington to make sure these executive orders are implemented in a way? sen. comer: i have a bill in the house and mike lee has one in

the senate and we'll do everything we can to do everything we can to expedite these federal orders and put them in to law so when the next president comes around they can't change them by executive order because what trump is doing is what's best for america. it's common sense. he's restored common sense back to washington, d.c. he's getting the government and bureaucrats out of the way of the private sector and we have to make sure that becomes the law of the land and think the support is there in congress. there were a few members of congress on the republican side in the house and senate that stuck their toe in the water to try to defy the president and try to obstruct the president. alina: wine as. sen. comer: i think they got the message. they listened to their people when they went home and they're on the trump train now and hopefully we can drain the swamp and make america great again. katie: everyone knows elon musk has been leading his team of doge and rampaging and cleaning

up federal agencies in washington, d.c. which we are loving because there's so much waste, fraud, and abuse. but as we continue to see more of what they're uncovering, of course we see these silly pet projects like "sesame street" in iraq, for example. we're seeing a massive issue of actual corruption that has occurred. for example, it was recorded, i believe this morning by the free deacon, stacey abrams who was georgia's darling, ran for governor twice and involved in a lot of voter initiatives there, about a $2 billion grant from the environmental protection agency after only managing $100 at a nonprofit she started. alina: the n.g.o.'s. katie: congressman, talk about what the oversight committee is doing with these new cabinet members like lee zeldin, for example, at the e.p.a. to really rout out this corruption and infrastructure the left has built in d.c. to really push

their political agenda on the entire country? sen. comer: we'll work with the administration. when they identify something they believe is fraudulent, we will follow through with the investigation and subpoena power, follow the money. that's what we did in the biden investigation. we got the bank records. a lot of people say go after the tax records. as someone that's been involved in banking, tax records don't always tell the true picture. the bank records don't lie. and one of the things that we're working on, we go through what they call suspicious activity reports where banks identify fraudulent behavior. banks usually catch when something suspicious happens. if there was an account with $100 which is probably the minimum to open an account and all of a sudden they get multimillion dollar deposit out of the blue, that raises a red flag and the banks report that to treasury. that's where we're going to follow the money. we're doing this now with act blue and i think we'll have some very interesting information to

come out very soon. but we're having a hearing on march 5 with the sanctuary city mayors and bringing in the mayors of new york who is not a bad guy, of new york, boston, denver, and -- alina: california. sen. comer: other than the california mayor they are trying to deinstruct the immigration issues. but the other question, who has been paying for this? you'll see there are lots of government pots of money funneling through these n.g.o.'s, nongovernment organizations, and what we want to identify. musk is all over that and doge is all over that and congress will be all over that and hopefully we can show the american people how abusive the democrats and allies in their deep state democracies have been with their tax dollars. they've funneled this mass

implosion of illegal immigrants into our country. they've housed them and provided free health care and at the end of the day, i think you're going to see a lot of tax dollars were laundered into programs like this. katie: sounds a lot like money laundrying to me. when it comes to these n.g.o.'s, a lot of lawsuits are filed and leftist groups trying to get judges involved in involving taking away the funding or even giving doge and elon musk and his team, who is a special government employee like anita dunn was with joe biden and other administrations to keep that kind of funding but seems like there's a lot of corruption, not just something that maybe got lost in terms of going to the wrong place. alina: no, no, it's very clear. you don't have to be a rocket scientist but a line item of trillions of dollars that don't get traced to anyone or anything but entities run by family members of bureaucrats, that's a problem. you don't have to be a lawyer to

know that ain't good. and at the end of the day, even yesterday, they tried to file these restraining orders. there was a bunch of individuals that said we're being hurt by this and it was denied and actually by a very liberal judge in d.c. who sat on a lot of the january 6 issues for president trump and other people. look, at the end -- this is what i can say. we have been -- i think there are 70 lawsuits that have been filed. i was speaking to elon and i said you should put in times square a ticker and it will say on the top how much money you're saving. on the bottom we'll put one how many lawsuits will get filed. one will go up and one will go down very quickly. they do it when we're winning and hitting them where it hurts. desperate times call for desperate measures and you see the d.a.'s come in and they're not winning. the only people winning right now are american people. katie: the taxpayer. alina: we're winning.

katie: it happens to be tax season and if i don't pay the couple cents, them throw me in prison. alina: we're firing the i.r.s. but people don't like it and they're funneling and auditing the american people and hurting us. it's not supposed to go that way and hurt each other. that's really the mission. and you know, president trump said just yesterday, i was with him and he was speaking at an economic forum and said look, we hope to take 20% of what doge has recovered, that is billions and billions, and put that money back to the american people who were hurt by the last administration who can't buy eggs because they went off and killed all the chickens. it's ridiculous. we have to get back to common sense. katie: congressman, how can republicans on capitol hill with their slim majority, work to codify these doge cuts into law?

because we keep hearing people saying, well, congress has to decide because they hold the purse strings, so now you guys have lots of examples inside a lot of these agencies about where these things that have been approved through congress are going. how do you make sure it's not just, you know, you see it, it's a problem, but we're going to keep going. sen. comer: the purpose to pass my bill and mike lee's bill that will expedite this and allow congress to codify all these executive orders. secondly, we've got to follow it up with a budget, with president trump's budget proposal. we've got to cut spending. we've got to ensure that the tax cuts are renewed. this budget reconciliation bill is huge. the reason this needs to be a very large bill is because this is the only vehicle that you can pass through the senate that only takes 51 votes. if we have to require -- depend

on democrats, we might get federallerman and that's it -- fetterman, and that's it. we'll be six votes short. katie: it's a long shot. sen. comer: we've got to do it on this reconciliation bill and put in no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and put this whole agenda in and cut the bureaucracy and watch america grow and watch this country take off. once you get the government off the backs of the private sector, the entrepreneurial spirit in america will flourish and americans will prosper and i think americans will start to regain a little confidence in their government again, all because of president trump's mandate and because of the work everyone in this room did to get president trump elected p.alina: and deregulation is a big one, the president promised with new regulation, they'll eliminate 10 of them. katie: we have a few minutes left and you're new to the world of politics and your thoughts on the next four years here and

your new gig. alina: i never thought i'd live in the swamp. i knew he was going to win and i wasn't sure i was going to come but glad i did. it's a blessing to be in the west wing with the greatest president i've seen in my lifetime. it is the greatest joy. and having been there with him through the fight to get here, i think it's why we fight so hard. i go to work every day, it is a blessing. i fight for the american people every day now. and i had started fighting for president trump but now it's for all of you. and it's an honor. i've gotten to do things like child trafficking issues and i'm speaking to the middle east and you have a platform to help not just america be strong but help the world be peaceful and great. and it's really america's strength that runs that. and i'm excited. it's been a real blessing and god's given me a real chance to do some change with president trump. i'm excited.

katie: congressman comer, what's next? you mentioned the sanctuary city hearing on march 6 and people can tune in but final thoughts where we're going here as the republicans control the government. sen. comer: we've got to stick together. i'm seeing more coordination between the house and senate than i've seen in the eight years i've been in congress. this is because we have a strong president. we have a strong president that's put in disrupters. the members of congress that love the status quo, they went back home during christmas break. they went back home after the first weekend when trump started making his proposals and putting his people in place. and they heard from their constituents. and the american people support president trump's agenda. and i think congress understands that. i think even the members that we sometimes get frustrated with in the house and senate, i think everybody's onboard. the president's popular.

and the people have delivered a message. hopefully we'll be able to pass his agenda. and i think the savings that doge is finding, it's just ironic that the democrats are exposing their true colors. they're obsessed with elon musk and they've lost their mind over elon musk. that is the hill they've chosen to die on, to protect the bureaucracy when the republicans, being led by president trump, want to end the bureaucracy. so i think we'll get a lot done and all because of president trump. katie: they're destroying their infrastructure and very afraid of what their political future looks like. thank you so much for sharing your insights today and we'll watch all of it. cpac, have a wonderful weekend p. thank for you coming. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025]

mr.we take you to the annual conservative political action conference near the nation's capital, where house speaker mike johnson is participating in a fireside chat. this is live coverage on c-span. >> all the patriots together. this is great. about to make america great again for the next four years. thank you for putting this together. on behalf of newsmax, thank you for being with us. as everyone just heard, kash patel -- [applause] it's official. murkowski and collins voted against him. [booing] mitch mcconnell voted for him.

and announced that he is not going to run again in two years. [applause] i guess my question is, which one surprised you more today? rep. johnson: i'm glad he did it and i want to to my hat to leaders soon in the senate republicans. they're getting the job done. the trunk cabinet is being confirmed. we need that. president trump needs his team. i'm grateful they are moving as quickly as they are. they are setting a good pace. so far, so good. >> only twice and i believe 85 years has the president's party picked up seats in the midterm elections. but you are going to change that in two years. -- rep. johnson: we are. we are. we are going to define history. we are going to grow the house majority in two years and not lose the majority. i think everybody recognizes president trump for years and

not to. if they took the majority back, they would try to impeach him. it would open the border wide. they would create all sorts of chaos. we have to win, and we will, because we have a very favorable landscape. as we are sitting here today, 13 house democrats are sitting in districts that president trump won pretty handily. there is more than 20 districts that president trump came within five points of winning. we have a great landscape to play not defense, but offense, to flip those seats into our column. and on top of that, we have a historic demographic shift in the election cycle. we had a record number of hispanic and latino voters, lack and african-american voters, jewish voters, union workers, groups that had not traditionally been in the republican party. on the sheer force of donald trump's persona, they came into the party, and they will be with us for quite some time. now we have a once in a

generation opportunity to demonstrate to these people that it truly is our conservative policies that are better for them. it leads to human flourishing. it is better for families, communities, states, in the nation as a whole. if we do that, we will hold this majority for quite some time. rep. johnson: question -- rob: a question i have wanted to ask you for a while. air force one, there was a photograph. there are four people in this photograph. kid rock, rfk junior, elon musk, donald trump, and speaker mike johnson. rep. johnson: that's my crew, ma'am. rob: did you think that crew would be together at 2000 feet? rep. johnson: you left out jelly roll. it's a great group. we went to the ufc fight and we did a round trip to palm beach, south florida, in the same night. we arrived back about 4:25 in the morning, and everybody you named was up like it was the middle of the afternoon.

it was a great event. that is the power of president trump. he brings together all sorts of people that would not otherwise be unified like that. it is a great thing for the country. it is unifying for the country. there is talent. it is a motley crue sometimes, but in a beautiful way. that has been one of the highlights of being speaker is hanging out with him. ask -- rob: can you explain why the left is angry at donald trump for trying to end two wars he did not start? i wish i could explain democrats. they are enraged about everything. the policies -- the party is in total disarray. they don't have a leader. they don't have a real vision forward. the entire platform has been repudiated by the american people. the woke, progressive nonsense has been stamped out. all they know to do is to lash out. think of it. they are opposing the ending of

a war. they are opposing the doge effort. but elon and the team are doing is what congress has not had the ability to do. they have cracked the code. they are inside the belly of the beast of the bureaucracy. and the algorithms are crawling through. that is right. they are exposing this massive fraud, waste, and abuse that we have not been able to uncover because the deep state has hidden it from us. this is a revolutionary kind of moment. it really is. i told elon in his office monday before last, you think of this like a scientist and a data analyst, and i think of it like a constitutional law attorney and a historian. what we are going to do here is bring back the founders original intent for the federal government, right? i mean, you know -- you are a student of history. the founders wanted a lean, small federal government. they wanted most of the power pushed down to the states and they wanted the federal

government to be closely monitored by the elected representatives of the people in congress. the problem is congress has not been able to do that job because they have been hiding the evidence. elon is on the inside. that is why the democrats are nervous. he is right over the target right now. bob: it has been remarkable to see the department of government efficiency -- that is what does stands for. and democrats are almost in this position right now of being against their primary mission, which is to save the american taxpayer money, each to me does not make any sense. rep. johnson: they like to spend the taxpayer dollar. they are for big government. progressives want the government to control every aspect of our lives. the last four years of the biden-harris administration, it was regulations on steroids. we have an opportunity to fix everything. we have a very aggressive legislative agenda because we have been given this opportunity by the voters to fix it.

rob: president trump has 77 million popular votes, right? in the house, house republicans have 74.8 million popular votes. that is the highest total we have ever gotten. so we see it as a mandate to fix it. and you are seeing that happen very aggressively. the president has over 300 executive actions already. and we are going to codify so much of what he is doing, so the next team cannot unwind it. rob: in america, we presidential elections every four years. we did so during covid. we did so during the second world war. we did so during the civil war. during the war of 1812, the white house was burned to the ground three months before james madison was elected. how important is it for ukraine to hold presidential elections? rep. johnson: very important, of

course. rob: there were canceled last year. rep. johnson: the president has pointed that out. rob: they claim to be a democracy. rep. johnson: we need an end to the conflict. i've done panels at two different events this morning. the republican governors association asked me about this. i went to the fortune 500 executives. they want to know the same thing. what is president trump doing? i said you have got to give him room to operate and do what he does. he is doing a level set. you have got to get both parties to come and bring about an end to this conflict, serve america's interest and everybody's interests around the world. i think of it like a mediation or arbitration. i am a recovery lawyer. forgive me. i think in those terms. when you start an arbitration between parties, you do not bring them into the room for the first meeting. you do it separately. i think the linsky complaining he was not invited to the first meeting with saudi arabia and russia is misplaced. what trump is trying to do is do a level set come up the

conditions in place for the real negotiation to happen, and we have got to allow him to do what he does. member, he wrote the art of the deal. he knows what he is doing. rob: if that takes six months or drags on, do you see another funding bill for a war in ukraine? rep. johnson: there is no appetite for that. what do you think? [audience booing] rep. johnson: we have to bring it to an end. our european allies understand it as well. this is drug on too long. russia has lost almost 700,000 troops, maybe more. the ukrainians have suffered great losses. have to bring an end to the conflict. it is time for it to end, and president trump is the brute force that can make that happen. rob: the president said a percentage of savings could go back to the american people in the form of what he called does -- doge stimulus checks.

how would that work? rep. johnson: politically, that would be great for us, sending everybody a check. rob: i just saw everybody look up. rep. johnson: i know. if you think about our core principles, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. that is our brand. we have a $36 trillion federal debt. we have a giant deficit. i think we need to pay down the credit card. that is what i think we need to do. [applause] rob: we keep hearing about this one big beautiful bill. how big? how beautiful? rep. johnson: it is going to be so big. the beauty of the reconciliation -- i don't want to get too deep in the weeds on procedure. normally, you need a 60 vote threshold in the senate to do anything of substance. budget reconciliation is the one exception where you only need 51 votes in the senate, a bare majority. we are going to use this reconciliation process to

achieve most of the priorities we ran on in the election cycle and that president trump committed to. so i could be here a long time, listing all those things, but clearly it is the most important interest of the country. we are going to secure that border once and for all. we are going to do that. we are going to get the economy going again, the american economy, and make sure we do not have the largest tax increase in u.s. history, which would happen at the end of this year if we fail in this mission, because the tax cut and jobs act, the cuts expire. we are going to get the economy going. we are going to get back to american energy dominance in this bill. and we are going to take a blow torch the regulatory state. lots of details. lots of subcategories under all that, but it is going to be a big beautiful bill, and it has to be by necessity, because that gives us the highest probability of success, memory i have a small margin in the house.

one vote, what could go wrong? but everybody is committed to delivering the america first agenda, and that is why we are going to get it done. rob: what is your working dynamic like with senate majority thune. for the first time in a long time, the senate has a bigger majority than the house. rep. johnson: by necessity, the chambers have to work together. that is really an innovation. as soon as i became speaker of the house in october, the first instinct i had was, we meet with the senate republicans and align the chambers. it is common sense. so we are doing that. you are going to see no daylight between the republicans in the house and senate. rob: mr. speaker, there was some reporting this week the democrats are planning what they are calling a super ticket in 2028 -- kamala harris and aoc.

are you prepared for that? rep. johnson: let it be so. is that real? rob: that is a legitimate -- i use the word legitimate very loosely nowadays with the media, but that report is out there. i don't know who would run for president and who would be vp. rep. johnson: i hope that happens. rob: do the democrats have a leader at any level? is it still joe biden? rep. johnson: he wasn't the leader the last four years. they are in a real bind. they don't have a vision. they don't have a platform. they have to do a reinvention of the party, but they are divided because they are in the blame game as they do the autopsy of what happened in the election cycle. it is an interesting time. our party is in great shape right now. we are very unified. we have a coalition. and we have the principles and

the policies that truly are better for the american people. you know what happened in the last four years? the woke progressive left moved so aggressively, so quickly, and it went all the way to the left, and it clicked, and now it is coming back. we are a center-right country. we always have been. we always will be. i think president trump is seen as a force helping push the pendulum back in place. we are going to seize that historic moment. i believe we can bring about a much better outcome for people. >> elon musk treated the real reason so many democrats are upset about entitlements is they are using taxpayer money to attract and retain illegal immigrants, their future voters. is that what you think the last four years at both our borders has been all about? rep. johnson: 100%. they opened the borders wide. they did not care about the

calamity and the heartache and the death it caused to american citizens, because it was a power play. they want to change the outcome of the senses in five years. this is very serious, and we are going to be dealing with the effects of this, the catastrophe, for years to come. it is a terrible tragedy. and don't ever forget that that was their motive. it was for their own political gain that they put the american people in such jeopardy. fentanyl alone was the leading cause of death, and that has flowed over the border. human trafficking all the atrocities. they lost hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors to traffickers. all of it, they allowed. they could have sealed that border any moment. the president had the authority. i asked him personally on multiple occasions. i pleaded and begged joe biden, use your authority. he looked down at the floor, shoveled his shoes, and said, i can't do that. the american people let him know how they felt about that.

rob: now that the horses out of the barn and joe biden is in row home with beach, retired -- how did you see him in those moments when you were with him in person? rep. johnson: there were only a couple of occasions. it did not allow me to meet with him one on one. but it is now widely reported a story of something that happened i think in early february of last year, when i was in the oval office and i asked him why he paused liquefied natural gas exports to our european allies. they are going to have to go to vladimir putin to get their needs met. he tried to argue with me and tell me he did not do that. it occurred to me in this dialogue that he genuinely did not know what he had signed, that they had put this executive in front of him and he did not understand what it was. that was a very alarming moment of realization for me, and i think the whole country knows now. it was a dangerous time, a very perilous time for us, particularly that last year of his administration.

but thank god that president trump is back in the white house. rob: i think this room knows you, but i think the american people are still getting to know you. and i thought this was wonderful. your son is on the boxing team at the naval academy. i did not know that. how is he doing? rep. johnson: well, he is bigger than his father. he is doing great. he made it to the semifinals in the brigade championship last friday and lost in a one-point split decision to a young man who was three years older than him and had been boxing about six years longer, i think. he held his own. he has been boxing seven months. he did jiu-jitsu a long time. a tough kid. rob: does he learn that from his father? rep. johnson: of course. no, he is a tough kid. he takes after his mother. rob: ladies and gentlemen, the

speaker of the house, mike johnson. ♪