for governor, he believed in boundaries. this is one of the reason why he supported the no child left behind. and he is supporting this common core. it >> steve king is back on the state and introducing the next speaker, kellyanne conway. >> she is spot on. she will let you know how it is going to come out. it may not be what the polling numbers are. she will mail it. it will be within half of a decimal point. she has in the work of michele bachmann and marsha blackburn. when i say i listen to kellyanne conway i describe it this way.

i should tape record everything she says and listen to it and take notes as maybe i can process all of the excellent information she provides. give the warmest welcome to my great friend, kellyanne conway. [applause] >> hi iowa. thank you congressman king for the great introduction. thank you mom for writing it. [laughter] i am having a great day, how about you? they asked me if i minded speaking after marsha blackburn and donald trump and i said i mind if they are hungry. i'm glad that you are eating. carrying on. this is a remarkable event

to me. i think this is how you connect to people and run for president of the u.s.. you take your case directly to the voters who decide your fate and the fate of the nation. and i heard that there were 1200 committed ticketholders and about that number on a waiting list we came about 7:00 this morning and people were lined up outside. you had record attendance, waiting lines, people outside the door, lined up and i think steve king is the taylor swift of des moines today. if they criticize you, just shake it off. they call today the opening kickoff of the 2016 presidential season. that i look at today as a continuation of what happened in iowa in 2014. [applause] exactly. iowa is where freedom flourished

in 2014. i thank you for that. that is why we are here. it is exciting to see so many presidential aspirants. it is great to listen to so many public policy minds. but we are all here because we love freedom and wish to promote it and pass it on to our children and their children. and not here to announce i am running for president. i'm happy to be president of my own company and household. i'm here to tell you that together we will and can elect a republican president in 2016. [applause] user said than done. why and how can we do it? here we go. rather than discussed who the next president of the u.s.

should be, let's talk about what the next president of the u.s. should be. let's build a president, a job description. don't name names. don't be carouse into choosing to early. make them earn it. but seriously, it is much more important for you to come up with the vision of a job description of what you expect from a president. it is not a light decision to make. it is not choosing an entree from a menu or a movie to watch this weekend. it is a serious decision because it is a serious time. 1, they should be a real conservative. [applause] it is easy to tell when they are not.

a conservative someone willing to show contrast. if you have some of you wants to be just a little bit different from the democratic nominee, i predict that person will lose and i must tell you, i think that person should lose. if you're only going to be a little bit different from the other side, what is the point? you're not going to break through the democratic blue wall of votes by doing that or inspire people to turn up in the aisle opposite and support you all the way. you cannot be the nella by being -- beat vanilla by being french vanilla. if i never hear the word elected will it again, i would be a happy person. i don't even know what that means. all i know about

electability is that donors and consultants are always telling us, and the media, god bless you, are telling us which republican can win. i support " x" and i think he can win. how do you know? he is a electable. you are too smart and this important is to election -- in this election is too important. the question is, who can lead? the definition of leadership has nothing to do with the fiction of electability. what is leadership to you? think about that as you assess the different candidates. is encourage? -- it courage?

is it the willingness to stand on principles? to surround yourself with people who know what they are doing? taking the slings and arrows? let me seea7yy as politely as i can, if people who would never vote for a republican anyway are telling you can win, run the other way. [applause] you know who should choose our nominee? you and me and voters across the country. do not let it happen. the other thing is, the democrats never listen to that. the democrats never allow the fiction of

electability choose their nominees. let's review. jimmy carter was told, don't run, you can't win. he ran and won. bill clinton was told, don't run, you can't win. he ran, he won, twice. then there is barack obama she's got it wrapped up. and she lost to obama. barack obama ran and won twice. he is the president of the united states. the democrats never listen to, don't run you can't win. ladies and gentlemen, tell your friends and candidates, if they have a presidential election in them, they should run this year

and this time. let it be a conversation about big ideas, not big money. [applause] let's replace electability with the electoral college. electability is one person telling you they can win. the only way to win is to win the competitive states that we keep losing and have lost twice to president obama, including iowa. if you can win significant states in the electric college system, that would prove that you are electable. don't worry about being called names. that's original juvenile. you are told that you are the extreme party. that is pretty funny because the republican party has pro-lifers, pro-choicers, people who raise taxes, people who cut them.

the democratic party has become the extreme party. abortion, anytime anywhere no exceptions. can you name me anyone five prominent pro-life democrats in this country. go. [hums jeopardy theme] anyone? zero. you know why? the democratic party has purged itself of the blue dog democrats, the pro-life democrats. they have become extreme and look what they try to do here. they try to tell you ladies don't vote republican they are extreme. we are only talking about biology beca math. i think that they thought you were too stupid to do the math,

that is pretty rich. speaking of rich, let's talk about hillary clinton. she is pretty rich. and she is rich because of policy that the republicans passed. i don't regard to that but i also think that any republican who wants to run for president must absolutely unflinchingly unapologetically, be completely unafraid of bill clinton and hillary clinton and all of the clinton candidacy would mean. [applause] i hope i did not discover the list of candidates in half. you cannot be afraid of hillary clinton. be afraid of isis or putin. i'm am not afraid of hillary clinton.

she is the second most popular person in her own household. [laughter] i'm sorry, you're not supposed to laugh it your jokes, but that is funny. she wants to run for bill clinton's third term that she has to run for barack obama's third term. i can't find a single person he wants to run for barack obama's third term. then they are trying to connect to youth, the way president obama has. nothing screams youth and energy then hillary clinton and joe biden. [laughter] hillary will be the first female president. terrific. what does she have in common with the first -- the

average iowa and woman. 125 minutes each for the same amount of money the average female worker in this country has to work five years to make. she says she is not driven a car since 1996. the average woman has not driven a car in 18 limits minutes. the question is not do you like her. the question is, is she like you? i would say that her vision is wrong for america but i have no idea what to choose. -- what's it is. [applause] i have reviewed those speeches and i said can't find a rationale for her candidacy. it

makes me worried that the same party who gave us nancy pelosi saying, when asked what obama car is about, that you have to pass the bill to read what is in it. i am worried that her candidacy is you have to vote for me to find out what it is going to be like. i'm not willing to take that chance and i did not think that you are either. let me say to you, everything the person who comes out here would do a better job as our nation economic steward, commander in chief, and president of the united states. that is not the question. you're here to listen to them but they are here to listen to you over the next year. make them earn it, help them earn it, and remember, you are the prize. don't decide to early. i would like to thank you on behalf of the iowa freedom summit for

being here today and for having me as part of your speakers. god bless you. thank you. [applause] [applause] [laughter] >> i think she is terrific and i know that. i want to now bring to the stage here governor jim gilmore. i try to bring you something about each of these speakers that you do not know before. this is something i did not know before. jim gilmore, former governor of virginia was an all-american clarinetist. what you find is that when people excel, they excel at a number of things. he was also army

counterintelligence. he was against the iron curtain. i would call him a cold warrior and a patriot. he is fluent in german. he also became the attorney general of the state of virginia and then the governor of virginia. he chaired a congressional panel for the readiness to fight terrorism. you are going to hear things about our national defense and security. and he was also chair of the republican national committee and as has certain point, he led the coalition of conservatives with the rnc. he has had a career best he has spent a career fighting for our values and he has been to iowa in the past. i first met him in iowa at a meeting. i do get to call him a friend. he is a friend of our country

and virginia and here in iowa. please welcome, governor jim gilmore. [applause] >> what a terrific crowd. i here to talk to you all of you today, about what i believe are the two greatest challenges facing america today. at first, i want to thank congressman king. he is a great patriot. he is a loyal man. i want to thank both of them. they are men who believe in america and i am proud to call that my friends. [applause] i want to also congratulate joni ernst who was here earlier today. she is doing a terrific job already in the senate. you know,

i kind of think maybe she should have been giving the state of the union address and let the president respond to her instead of the other way around. we formed a super pac and spend money here and i what supporting joni ernst. if you want to follow that, you can follow us at growth pack u.s. i know that newt gingrich is going to come here in a few minutes. he is an old friend of mine. i will tell you a story. back in 1998 when i was first elected as governor, newt gingrich was a speaker at the time. established a committee on internet and sales tax. i think it was set up to impose taxes on the internets but the speaker did not think there should be taxes on the internet and he appointed me to the commission.

funny thing happened on the way to the pretax internet commission. the conservatives took it over and i was chairman and we issued a report that said they should not be taxes on the internet and it stays free today. [applause] every four years, we begin a national conversation, a national conversation to decide what kind of nominee that we want or do not want to run for president of the united states. i'm going to ask you all some questions today. we'll kind of nominee do we really want. ? it is going to be decided by the people in this room. kind of nominee do we want? we believe -- we want a nominee who believes education should be run out of washington, common core? >> no. >> do want to nominee that

enacted state health care and said he was against obamacare? >> no. >> well, do you want to nominee who wrapped his arms around president obama while all of us were fighting on behalf of our own candidates for president of the united states? >> no. >> you are my kind of crowd and i am proud to be here with all of you. i will also say to you after six years of barack obama, we need a president who believes in america. [applause] ok, i'm going to talk to you today about the two great challenges that i believe our country faces today. one, we need to grow our economy and create more jobs, enter jobs, get our wages up and give

our young people and people who are looking for work real opportunities in the society again. that is the first thing we need to do. second thing we need to do, we have to meet this really very real danger. as the world is coming apart and our president continues to step back and step aside. these are the two challenges we continue to face. in 1999, i was asked by the congress to chair the national advisory committee on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction on behalf of the united states i chaired the commission for five years. i was the governor. during the 9/11 attack that attacks new york and virginia. the pentagon is in virginia and i had to cope and you would that major terrorist attack. i was an intelligence officer in west germany during the cold war. i must tell you that which you know, which is and we have to state that is, the world is a more dangerous is now than it

was before barack obama became president of the united states. we have now more than one challenge to this country realistically. in the old days, the cold war, we understood who the enemy was. it was the soviet union and the understood that we had a nationstate that wanted to challenge of america safety and the advancement of our values. we understood that. today, we have a dual challenge. the first challenges that we have countries that want to charge the safety and advancement of the united states. russia for example. they are beginning their old expansionist type of tendencies again. they took over crimea and are at war right now as we speak in this room in the ukraine. why is that? it might be because our president sent the wrong message. you might for member that

conference with the russians when he was off-camera but not off mike and he said to the president of russia, tell vladimir after i am elected i can be more flexible. do you remember that? what you expect the russians to do? and the chinese, listen, we have very positive relations with the chinese in a lot of ways on trade and some matters. but the fact is, we have to be village and because the chinese and old and their armies and navies and air fares force to threaten our friends. i say to you, we have to be very careful and have strength in this country. [applause] and airan, we are in negotiations with them because they seem determined to get weapons of mass destruction and

i hope that he's negotiations work out. that we have to think about what the iranians are thinking. did they think maybe that america is so weak and indecisive now in the world that they can just stonewall us and get their weapons of mass destruction and transformed the nature of the middle east and indeed the world? if we are strong and flotilla and vigilant, we will be ok. what about the others? yet to think about this. we have a second challenge a guerrilla war going on right now. have al qaeda committing a true right now in yemen. we have boko ao haram massacring thousands of people. we have ice is trying to create a false type of state. they force women trying to wear

veils and stone rape victims. and they accuse republicans of having a war on women? [applause] and attacks right now in britain and france and in the united states and in israel this week where 12 people were stabbed these things are going on right now, right now. and in paris, we just had the french begin to stand up and say we're not going to put up with this anymore and what do we do? i was ashamed when barack obama did not go to paris to stand with the other world leaders against terror. i was ashamed. [applause] now, i know the real reason that barack obama snubbed our allies. because the obama-cary doctorate is one of the radical muslim

world. this president doesn't believe in america. this president doesn't believe that america is a force for good in the world. i do. [applause] this president doesn't believe that america is an exceptional nation and i know it is and you nknow it is. he would not stand arm in arm against terror because he believes the approach to islamic a stream is and is to apologize and that is not the role of the leader of the free world. -- extremism and to apologize and that is not the role of the leader of the free world. it was a missed opportunity. he should've gone to paris and contrasted the flexibility statement.

he could've added dignity to the fact that we were going to stand with our allies against this kind of terrorist threat and he didn't do it and that was a failure of american leadership. [applause] instead, by the way, he sent john kerry and james taylor to do us wrong. did you see that? i just found out that the president is going to attend a state funeral of the king of saudi arabia. i kind of thought he was going to send -- six years of barack obama. i want to tell you this one more time, we need a president who believes in america. that is what we need. [applause] i want to talk to a minute about the -- to you for a minutes

about the other great challenges we need to address. leslie grab this. -- lets me grab this. i should mention one other thing. you may have noticed this week that congress passed benjamin netanyahu to come to speak to congress. [applause] and the president said that he would not meet with prime minister mention how benjamin netanyahu. i think that is a mistake. this is a time once again with the president has to act like the president of the united states. this is a moment he has to meet with him and make the print once again that america will stand tall with its friends in the war against terror. [applause]

this is a president that does not believe in america, who does not believe we are exceptional who does not believe we are the begin of freedom in the world -- the begin of freedom in the world. here must be our goals for the 21st century. western values must prevail. i know a lot of people out there do not believe that is going to happen. they want to manage western decline. i say to you, if america stands tall, western values canada must prevail in the 21st -- western values can and must prevail in the 21st century. a commitment to the individual or it to the rule of law and the advancement of women. these are the values we have as westerners. this is under threat right now.

we have to make sure that everyone understands that america is exceptional we are not just like every other country of the world, no better or worse. we are exceptional. [applause] because of our valleys, because of what you believe in, because of our history, because of her declaration of -- our declaration of independence. we are fortunate enough to be the exceptional nation to make a difference. we have to have a foreign policy to shape the world to make sure that it's not a threat to the existence and safety of americans. why am i saying that? why am i telling you these things? because all of these things are in question right now. the president's foreign policies to pull back, pull back, to

withdraw, to leave the world to its own devices and as we have seen, that policy is what is causing the deterioration of the world today. it must change. it must change. [applause] i also want to say to you that any republican that we nominate who has similar pullback type of philosophy in our foreign policy would be just as dangerous as the democrats, just as dangerous. and we can't to nominate a person like that. i think the ball off the philosophy we ought to have ought to paraphrase george orwell. that is what i think. [applause] now, the second great thing that

we have to do is restore the american economy after the great recession. the american economy is the foundation of liberty and the 20 for all people. we were in the 20th century. it was the arsenal of democracy and it must be again in the 21st century. it is our duty to do this. the president said that everything is just great. we don't have to do anything else anymore. because of his great leadership, everything is just fine. that is not the presidential leadership. here's the truth and reality. a .7 million americans are still out of work in the united states. 6.8 more million americans are working part-time and they want to work full-time. wages are stagnant. labor participation is down to

historic levels because people do still think they can get a decent job anymore. graduates, students are graduating and half of people are getting college degrees and they are working in jobs that don't require degrees because that is all they can get. i say to you, that is not good enough for america. [applause] america, america has got to be a country that moves forward and we had to have a president who believes not just in america but in americans, their ability to invest and work and aspire and growth and have opportunities to read is the america we believe in. -- have opportunities. that is the america we believe in. john f. kennedy cut taxes in 1961 and the economy went up. ronald reagan cut taxes in 1981 and the economy went right up. let me tell you about a personal

experience i had. and i ran for governor of virginia and was elected, i thought turbotax in virginia called the car tax. it's meant that we were sending bills every year for people for the privilege of owning an automobile and it it was a burden on people taking care of their families and trying to get to and from work, people of modest means to don't have much except cars. it was a terrible attacks and i said we were going to cut the car tax and when i became governor of virginia, we cut the tax and kept good on the promise and did what we said we were going to do. that is why believe in the ability of individual people to have more of their money and do something with it, advanced quality of their lives. to ask ago, i gave a speech in virginia and talented

legislation to finish the car tax cut. i say to you, it is a crusade we need to take nationally to cut taxes and restore our economy and now i'm going to tell you, this is what we should do. the first thing we should do, we eliminate double taxation and start with eliminating the death tax in america. [applause] the death tax is hard on people trying to transfer their family farms and small businesses. second of all, we need to cut taxes for individuals and restore the economy. third, we need to unify all business activity under one tax provision and reduce the tax to 15%, which will make us competitive in the world for the first time. [applause] so i just have one question to ask.

why is this a difficult? why is this so difficult for us to stand strong against our adversaries? lies it so difficult for us to stand tall with our friends? why's it so difficult to put together a tax cutting program that will restore our economy? why is it that we can't have -- i think this is the america that we believe in. that is what we believe in. you know, -- [applause] when i was elected governor of virginia i had the privilege of standing in the shoes of some other previous virginia governors, specifically thomas jefferson and patrick henry. i want to tell you a quick story, a very quick story about patrick henry. in 1775, the war for american independence was already underway in boston. the virginia simply met in st.

john's church in richmond to determine what virginias role would be in the american revolution. there are a lot of people in that assembly at that time who thought we should reconcile with george the third. at the critical moment, patrick henry stood up and said, no. i don't know about other people, that's for me, give me liberty or give me death. [applause] patrick henry leads in america -- believed in america before there was in america. you believe in america, i believe in america, and now it is time for a president that believes in america. god bless you and god bless our country. [applause] thank you. [applause]

>> all right. did everybody enjoy lunch? ok, good. think the tea party patriots for that. our next speaker is one of the most famous and accomplished conservative american warriors and history. he went from being a history professor at a college in georgia to one of the most consequential speakers in american history. he single-handedly changed how republicans and conservatives operate in the house of representatives, taking house republicans from being irrelevant backbenchers to leaders for limited government and lower taxes. newt gingrich would build the gop into a party where conservative activists not only had a voice but set the agenda

for reform. he taught conservatives and republicans how to fight and win the battle of public opinion against liberal activist and the media. in 1994, his efforts paid off and conservatives swept into a huge historic victory, making him speaker of the house. as eager, he achieved monumental conservative reforms welfare was reformed and the budget was balanced. today, newt gingrich as all of you know is a prolific writer. he authored 18 books. he and his wife calista, calista, hello they have made some of the great conservative documentaries including " rediscovering

god in america." it is been my pleasure of the last many years to work with with my good friends knew to newt gingrich and calista gingerich. give a warm welcome to speaker gingrich. [applause] ♪ [applause] >> well, first of all, thank you for this very warm welcome. i didn't know how many of you know this but citizens united is the only organization of its kind that i know of that has been

attacked by president obama in three different state of the union'ns. it gives dave a unique place in american history. i listened when listening to the president when justice alito corrected him, but i realized was that none of us understood was that when president obama was teaching constitutional law at the university of chicago, we assumed it was the american constitution. [laughter] [applause] now, calista and i are always glad to come back. many of you gave us very warm welcomes over the years. we have a lot of ties and a lot of friends here. i am particularly glad to be here. i was watching joni ernst earlier.

this is really an improvement for in america. [applause] we flew out with chuck grassley . he was coming out as we were coming in and he said i would like to state and hear you but i have to go to the farm. and i said yes, i know what your pattern is. i do know what you feel that i think that he was wrong and i am delighted to have a farmer as the chairman of the judiciary committee. [applause] i'm glad to be here at this project which steve king is doing such a great job. he and david are such terrific partners. we were talking a while ago, you now have with david young and steve, you come along way by the

time you pick up two senate seats and how seats. you have the longest serving governor and the history of the united states, which is amazing. [applause] i knew him when he was only the longest serving governor in the history of violent and heof iowa. we are delighted to be here. i have to give one brief commercial because we will back with her fifth book. i'm proud that she is taking on american history for four to eight years old. we will be back once again. [applause] i am probably different from all of the folks who are going to speak to you today. i agree to come here when dave and steve asked me to because i knew that you all would be here,

that a lot of potential candidates would be here and therefore the media would be here. [laughter] i wanted to come and talk about something that i think is serious. and not political in any normal sense. it is about american survival. i want to say to you flatley that almost 14 years after 9/11, the u.s. today is losing the war with radical islamics. we have to have the courage to confront how badly we are doing. the state department was about as equally bad, frankly, under george w. bush. the unwillingness tell the truth was equally as bad about who our enemies were. the expert said, you cannot tell

the truth about who they are because it could confuse other people so why don't you make up strange terms? it became bizarre. people all around the planet this is a global war yet they insist about talking about it through jogger fee. we are focus on northern syria. there are thousands of jihadists who will come to northern syria from around the world, over a thousand from france alone, over a hundred from the u.s. this is a global war. last year, boko haram killed more people than ebola. there are 10,000 in nigeria. even though the initial base camp was called afghanistan in honor of the al qaeda. i look at suicide bombings,

beheadings, all these things going on. they don't strike me as a rotary club conspiracy. there is one common pattern occurring everywhere across the planet and that is radical islamists who hate our civilizations and are prepared to cut off for heads and are determined to impose their religion by force. [applause] now, i am not going to spend a lot of time talking about president obama's pathological incapacity to deal with reality. i think that is what it is. there is no point in trying to get him to learn how to say the words radical islamists because he has a speech impediment which blocks them from being able to say the words. it would be embarrassing. watching john kerry the other day trying to expand all of this, it is about civic unique

random individuals. you end up with someone who is caring a card that says -- carrying a card that says soldier of allah and was talking to an imam, someone who jumps up and kills 13 americans, and even the institution of the u.s. army is so corrupted by the intellectual dishonesty we now live with, they described it as a workplace incident. [applause] this is as though in 1946 1947, we had henry wallace instead of henry chim and i had a president who said there is no kgb or comintern. that is where we are. you have an elite in both parties unwilling to tell the

truth. you're not going to win this war if you cannot tell the truth. you're not going to win the war if he cannot admit it is war. i can already hear some of our friends on the lift and a few of our friends on the right who want -- who say that newt gingrich one is to have an army and occupy everywhere. baloney. this is a campaign that should be fought with the largest number of allies and should be fought wherever possible by surgically and of optically hunting down the people. if you are muslim and a lived in fees with your neighbors and had no problems with people converting them both directions saying that if you can have a mosque, you can have a church or synagogue, i have no problem. but if you are muslim who believes that you are going to impose sharia by cutting off my head, i have a desire to kill

you before you cut off my head. [applause] [applause] i would urge all of you to go back and look at president george w. bush is magnificent speech to the joint session of congress shortly after 9/11. there, he said, there is an axis of evil and he listed airan iraq, as north korea. he could've added a few more countries, a few them felt hurt that they were left off the list but it was a good start. he said, you are either for us

or against us. but the state department and others said you cannot really mean that. are you really fair to say to the saudis, you are either their for us or against us? are you prepared? you have a new leader in egypt who is remarkably like mubarak. who is remarkably like saddam. he is military leader dominating a country by force because the alternative is a muslim brotherhood radicalized egypt threatening the u.s. and the entire world. i would tell you flatley well i would love to see the age of should people be prosperous and free at have attempted live in a genuine democracy, i'm not -- just as i was not

confused by the communists, i am not confused by the islamic brotherhood who want to use our language. this is a significant a fight as the development of anti-communism was between 1945 in 1950. [applause] you know, you may remember that ronald reagan was a democrat. he voted for fdr. he did a commercial for harry truman and hubert humphrey. but he was humphrey in 1948 was the anti-communist liberal taking on the communist wing of the democratic former labour party. reagan, and in 1947, he sitting around and chatting with the guys he says to him, i am a

genuine stalinist and then me -- when we win, you're the kind of person we are going to put in prison or kill. reagan went home and said, gee i wonder what that guy meant? [laughter] [applause] being a guy who did not go to harvard and learn how to avoid reality -- [laughter] [applause] reagan said to himself, i guess that if they win, they will put me in jail or kill me. in a selfish, near latitude, he decided he did not want them to win -- narrow attitude, he decided she did not want them to win. he was prepared for the soviet

union to be defeated. it took from that moment of awareness in 1947, 44 years for the soviet union to collapse and frankly, i thought it would take another 20 or 30. but, he calmly and solidly built a coalition and the most powerful army in history and calmly and methodically spied on people and did the things necessary to be safe. we had a clear notion that we were prepared to defend america and america's allies and we did it for 44 years. i'm here today -- [applause] i'm here today to ask you to talk to your members of congress and to send whatever device you use, twitter facebook, e-mail,

snail mail, personal visit to friends around the country. i wrote a piece in the wall street journal where i outlined the hearings the u.s. congress should have. in my mind intellectually, i have written off his administration. it is hopeless and unless there is some great conversion of. by hillary clinton, i would write her off and she is part of this worldview and is with obama and cannot hide from it. it is a fact. [applause] but i would ask your help in getting the congress to understand both in the house and the senate that we need probably six months or more of hearings that start at the beginning. why are there radical islamists? what are their values? what is the world they seek to accomplish? don't kid yourself.

this is a pervasive problem. there's a blogger in saudi arabia who was for liberalizing saudi arabia. he has been sentenced to 1000 lashes delivered in public, 10 per week. the u.s. government should be angrily protesting. this is nonsense. we don't have to tolerate the saudi's living in the middle of the ninth century. we should be saying to them, we find this abhorrent. the iranians have lucked upocked up a " washington post" reporter. they were probably the people funding and training the people who took over yemen this week. yemen was the place that the president cited as proof that his policy was working. it is not heard from him since

yemen fell but then, he is busy. the super bowl is coming up and there are a number of other things. you cannot expect him to notice a number of countries being lost. i'm not here to tell you that i have an answer. i have a direction. the first part of that direction as to lay out for the american people the facts about the scale of the problem. when you see the number of islamists around the world, when you see what they say and i am a historian, and the general rule is when someone tells you that they are prepared to cut off your head of us you convert -- the other day four christians had their heads cut off because they would not convert -- i think that it's a sign that they would cut off your head unless you can rent.

onvert. whatever it takes to drive them off the internet, we should do. we should be very clear about that. [applause] one of the strategies should be to insist that everyone getting money from people like the saudi's have to have it noted. when i see next bernanke retelling of the saudi -- when i see someone on television telling me about the saudi's, we should know if they are funded by them. it is absurd the apologists for these people are all involved in total intellectual dishonesty, weakening and undermining the survival of the united states. in addition, we should make it very clear that to be a not 20 tolerate any kind of advocacy --

that's we will not tolerate any kind of advocacy of sharia or violence against the west. we are not going to tolerate any recruiting or fundraising or people who leave this country in order to go fight somewhere else for it frankly, we should make it a condition of losing your passport and not being able to come back to america. [applause] in the middle of the 1930's, as the british leadership showed total cowardice and were terrified of dealing head-on with adolf hitler, one man actually read " mein kampf." that man was winston churchill and he said i think this guy means what he says.

he was a lonely voice. at one point, he was down to four members voting with him out of 600 and 35. he said the truth is so important and finally, day by day, hitler proved that churchill was right. i believe that we are in that kind of environment. i believe that our government lies to us every day about this. i believe the state department lies about it. i believe the intelligence agencies have been -- starting with congress we have to demand that we the people deserve to know the truth and we the people deserve the right to defend our civilization. [applause] i just went to close the

thought. i have been deeply involved for many years. i grew up in the army. i believe the number one obligation of the government is to protect its people and if you don't do that, everything [applause] over the next year you will be visited by many candidates. i'll once -- iowans have been through this before. i ask you to demand that every candidate that comes through here has to answer what are they prepared to do to help defeat radical islamists so that america and its allies can go into the future in freedom and safety. if you do that, by the sixth or seventh visit, everyone of them will have a pretty good answer because they will be afraid to come back. you can play a major decisive role in getting america back on the right track and with your

help, i have no doubt that the american people will defeat those who would cut off our heads, defeat those who would force us into forcible conversion of religion, defeat those who have such contempt for us that they think they can send us videos and we will do nothing. thank you, good luck, and god bless you. [applause] ♪

>> we are iowa, and we know how to get a lot done in a single day. we will do this over and over again. we will look at this and listen to what people have to say and evaluate it. in this business i'm -- i've been answering questions in the press for a good number of years -- over time, you get to a place where the temptation is to simply repeat an answer you give to somebody else, perhaps to a different question creeps in on you. i will plead guilty to that although occasionally the press will say no, you give me fresh answers. there is one person in this entire public arena that i think

every time you ask him a question, you completely re-process. that person is ambassador john bolton. [applause] john bolton served in the united states army. he was an orderly -- early goldwater supporter. he became undersecretary for arms control, and later on u.s. ambassador to the united nations treaty served the reagan administration and two bush administrations, 41i-43. -- 41 to 43. he practiced law in the meantime, a product of yale school of law. today john bolton is a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute, and he is the leading voice in foreign policy in the united states

today. if there's any single topic that i believe need to come out today, and that is to talk about our national security, our foreign policy, how we are going to protect the american people all around the globe. john bolton is here today to deliver to you a broader message than that, but it will be one where you will understand and he understands, and i'm delighted to welcome to the stage ambassador john bolton. [applause] hello. >> hello. thank you. it's a great pleasure to be here in iowa. i thank all of you for attending. this is the kind of diligence we are going to need as we proceed towards the 2016 election cycle. it is an honor for me to be

here. i want to thank steve king and dave bossi and citizens united. it's a fantastic idea and a real treat. as steve king said, i want to talk to you about national security. i don't think there has ever been a more important time in recent years to do that, especially given what has happened to our country over the last six years. for the past six years we have waited for obama to lead, to defend our country, and he has consistently failed. two more years of danger remain until 2016, and his former secretary of state, hillary clinton, is no more up to the job that he was. [applause] we are without question less secure than we were six years ago. you have heard the phrase several times today, ronald reagan, the only political leader who can amend scriptures and make it better. when he talked about the shining city on the hill -- ladies and

gentlemen, our president has drained the moat and is leaving the gates open and undefended. [applause] we cannot afford eight more years of obama and clinton's misbegotten views of america, there and experience, and their incompetence. as conservatives, we can now finally do something about it. i think it's critical to get national security back on the radar screen, where it has not been for six years. [applause] political operatives and media commentators have long ignored the fact that the american people have an inherent realism about foreign and defense policy. those people focus on issues close to them, particularly the economy. it doesn't mean they are uninterested in international threats and challenges. americans are very practical people. they delegate to the leaders they sent to washington the job

of mastering the intricacies of national security issues. they expect that the president will alert them when there are threats and lay out a program to deal with those threats. but barack obama does not consider american national security a priority. he told us in 2008 his priority was to fundamentally transform the country, and as far as he is concerned, national security is a distraction from that. i believe he is the first president, republican or democrat since the attack on pearl harbor who does not wake up every morning and think, what threats does america face today? when the president is not leading, the people expect the loyal opposition will criticize him. but unfortunately over the past six years, i have to say republicans have collectively failed to do that, perhaps because too many of our leaders by the conventional political wisdom that national security is

not a political priority. and today we face the threat of neo-isolationism which could result in incapacitating both of our major parties from leading america to defend its interests. the republican party is the party of national security. there is no national security wing in the democratic party and there has not been for a long time. while the citizens early date to their leaders in washington, the responsibility for learning the details, they do not delegate holding leaders accountable for the consequences of their policies. voters have long equated foreign-policy vision and confidence with the critical quality of presidential leadership. they understand instinctively that ignoring international dangers makes those dangers

neither easier to resolve nor makes them go away. the opposite is true. problems fester and grow harder to resolve when you don't address them. when politicians are manifestly not fulfilling their responsibilities, we the people react, as happened in the two 2014 elections. despite the conventional wisdom that foreign affairs don't matter reality has a way of intruding. it did in 2014. isis beheading american citizens. this month in paris, we have seen radical islamists kill 16 innocent people at charlie hebdo and that kosher grocery store, and more bad news is coming. the people saw what happened last year, and they made obama's national security failures critical in several key elections. i think the message was unambiguous. right year in iowa, joni ernst,

and iraq veteran ran an insurgent campaign defeating the democratic opponent wants not to be a sure winner -- once thought to be a sure winner. we recall the famous television commercial. what i remember from a commercial is when it appeared on the screen and said mother, soldier, conservative. very powerful in her victory. [applause] she will be a great senator as she has already demonstrated in her response to the state of the union and this morning. in arkansas, tom cotton, another veteran, expressly made foreign and defense policy the centerpiece of his campaign, along with his military service. i think he will be another great leader in washington. in north carolina, thom tillis fought off a neo-isolationist challenge in the republican

primary and made his democratic opponent's lack of attention to islamist terrorism a key issue and he won. martha mcsally in arizona's second congressional district the first female air force combat squadron leader, was able to go from a significant deficit and win a very closely contested seat in the house. she's going to be a great leader as well. even in those races, like scott brown in new hampshire, where the republican candidate did not win, national security brought scott brown to the brink of victory. when you put this together, it shows that foreign and defense policy will be even more important in 2016. certainly the foreign threats and challenges the united states faces are not going to diminish over the next two years. in fact, our adversaries all around the world are calibrating

their own policies to take advantage of the remaining two years of the obama administration. they understand they have a precious opportunity against a weak and ineffective president to advance their agenda. before hopefully a stronger, more confident president takes office. [applause] but significantly, i think the voters understand, even if the political operatives do not, that adam smith was right when he said in "the wealth of nations" that the first duty of the sovereign, the first duty of the sovereign is that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies. that is the president's main job. when the president fails at that, he fails at everything. [applause]

now, let's discuss what has gone wrong over the past six years. it will unfortunately likely go wrong in the next two. i have a limited amount of time to read -- time. i will try and summarize it. the report card on the obama-clinton-kerry record is one of continued failure, failed every step of the way. for six years, obama has basically try to avoid national security policy. he sees these international threats as distracting from that objective of fundamentally transforming america, and he's not done yet. he doesn't believe in the global war against terrorism. he said so repeatedly. he thinks it can be handled as a law enforcement matter, as if we can unilaterally declare the world we did not seek this war but americans will not allow their fellow citizens to be

killed with impunity. we will show them. [applause] people say but there is war weariness and we have been in afghanistan a long time. what will happen if taliban and al qaeda take back over in afghanistan and it is again a base for the kind of attacks we saw in 9/11? what happens if pakistan falls and the arsenal of nuclear weapons falls into the hands of pakistani taliban or other radical lists? -- radicalists? there's more weariness because there's a lack of leadership. would you rather defend america far away, or in our streets? that's an easy question. but obama gets an f for utter lack of effort or attention. he won't call islamic terrorism what it is. you just heard newt explain that. instead, what do we have? man-caused disasters.

workplace violence. violent extremism. what parallel universe are these people in? even muslim political leaders the president of egypt, call for a revolution in islam. go to the largest coptic christian church in egypt and wish the parishioners merry christmas. and an unbelievably brave act the governor of belgian takes a stronger antiterrorism posture than the obama white house. in the meantime, chaos is descending all across the middle east, one crisis after another is melding into another as american influence declines. look at what has happened this week in yemen. the government has completely collapsed, now joining the governments of somalia, let -- libya, iraq and syria in total

collapse. the [indiscernible] are a surrogate for the ayatollahs in teheran. in the same former country of yemen, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula has its principal base. this was the country that the president himself singled out as one of the successes of his counterterrorism strategy. imagine what the failures are like. [laughter] in the failures are too sad to recall. two and a half years ago our ambassador in libya, chris stevens, three other americans killed by terrorists in benghazi. here we are. there has been no retaliation no retribution for killing american citizens. what does it tell the terrorists

around the world when the ambassador, the president's personal representative, is killed, and we do nothing about it? that says to the terrorists we can walk on this country, and that is a terrible lesson to learn. [laughter] [applause] that's not our america. we see the president treating with our adversaries. this is a president who thinks as the middle east deteriorates, the principal problem is israel's construction of apartment buildings in east jerusalem, a president who is so busy that when prime minister netanyahu visits in a few days, you won't have time to see him. what does that tell our friends? the president has failed all across. he gets an f for bling -- being blinded terrorism.

we are about to sign a deal with the ayatollahs of iran that legitimize their nuclear weapons program and allow them to proceed, to weaponize at a time of their choice. it endangers israel and our arab friends and us. north korea, one of the poorest countries in the world, has detonated three nuclear devices. the commander of u.s. forces korea has said they are very close to being able to miniaturize their device, put on a warhead, and in short order will be able to reach the west coast of the united states. what has the president done? he has no policy on proliferation. it is a policy of appeasement. we have seen north korea attack sony pictures. the only silver lining to the attack was at least the north koreans attacked hollywood instead of an important business.

[applause] we have just dodged the threat of ebola but don't think that is over. we have had testimony from defectors from russia that the soviets and the russians had focused on ebola as a biological weapon. what are we doing with that threat around the world under obama? next and nothing. obama gets in f -- an f for not standing up to north korea and not protecting israel against the threat of a nuclear holocaust. it goes on and on. remember the reset button with russia? that has been an embarrassment. russia uses military force on the continent of europe and ukraine again in georgia to change international boundaries, something we fought two world wars for in the last century to

prevent again. it's happening in front of us and we are doing nothing. we have got a china that is making aggressive territorial moves in the south china sea. building weapons that can destroy our satellites in time of warfare. obama allows our navy to sync to a level of ships at sea not seen since 1916. an f on the reset button policy, and f on asia policy general. obama has not protected american sovereignty. for all of you who care about important domestic social issues, never forget that the left in this country dissatisfied with what it gets in our democratic trusses, tries to go international, to take issues like gun control, the arms trade treaty, and impose them on the u.s. externally.

issues that we think should be debated properly and in free and open debate here, they want to send to the united nations. that is deep in obama's heart. american security is not just economic and political and military, it's about these critical issues to. obama gets an f on protecting american sovereignty. he has damaged our defense budget. the list goes on and on and on. [applause] we are in danger as a result but what should the voters of iowa and other key states do in judging presidential candidates for next year? iowa and the other early states have a unique capacity to drive the political debate. your experts manufacturing, and agriculture, like those across our country, our powerful drivers in explaining why

america's place in the world is critical to our domestic economy, but candidates have to address your concerns. if you make foreign and defense policy a priority, you can set the agenda and force the would-be nominees to answer your questions. how should we do this? what should we be looking for? voters should reject any candidate who treats national security policy in a dismissive or offhand way. [applause] it is not enough to check the box by mentioning foreign policy every once in a while. this is not about slogans or bumper stickers. even if the international environments were calm and unthreatening, which it is not, central to presidential leadership is the ability to anticipate challenges and address them while the costs are still relatively small.

simply ignoring threats, hoping they won't materialize, or candidates saying that he or she will rely on well-qualified foreign-policy advisers is just not acceptable. second, candidates should be proudly patriotic. they should defend against threats -- [applause] it's amazing we even have to say that, don't we? but it's true. the candidates should defend against threats to american sovereignty wherever they appear. they should assert that a strong american international presence is positive and necessary for us and our allies. they should reject the hillary clinton-barack obama and neo-isolationist viewpoints that vigorously protecting our interests worldwide is in itself somehow i cause of conflict and instability.

say clearly that america is a benign force globally, providing order and stability, providing the foundations for the interlocking global economy, and our way of life here at home. u.s. strength is not the problem. it is the solution. our strength acts as a deterrent, reducing the risk of international conflict, not provoking it. [applause] third, candidates must demonstrate they understand how closely interwoven domestic and foreign-policy are accelerating our weak economic recovery requires appreciating the economy is not simply a domestic issue. a strong economy depends on that strong international presence. these are not alternative priorities, but are inextricably connected. huge budget deficits, excessive taxes, counterproductive energy policy sap r economy and

undercut our strategic capabilities internationally. we are in far more danger today than they were six years ago. -- we were six years ago. we cannot repeat the mistakes of 2008 and 2012 in 2016. the security of america does not depend on the people who are speaking before you today. it depends on you. [applause] it is our security. it is our sovereignty. if we don't take it seriously, no one else will. i know that you do. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you very much. are we ready for the next one? this next one is one of my heroes, so i'm really honored to do this. our next speaker is truly one of the most conservative members of the united states senate bringing with them as western ideas of liberty and a passion for the tea party movement. when he was a young boy and his father's kitchen table, discussions taught him about the importance of federalism and limitations of executive power. as a lawyer himself, he clerked for future supreme court justice samuel alito buffer or -- before returning to utah to work for the republic governor -- republican governor. he took on bob bennett in one of the most talked about primary contests in the country.

it was a true victory for conservative principles. a senior member of the gop establishment was beaten. his race was one of the first tea party victories in america. as a senator, he has been a constant champion of conservative causes. his work on poverty has made him a leader of a new generation of conservative policy innovators. he has regularly earned top rankings from the most common grassroots groups. he has led on entitlement reform, putting forth a truly transformative plan that would've kept social security solvent for decades hoping put an end to part of the government's impending fiscal implosion, all without raising taxes. over the past year,senator lee has impressed his colleagues in the senate with his impressive policy work, so much so that he was just named just a couple

weeks ago as chairman of the senate republican policy committee am aware he will develop policy initiatives for the new congress. senator lee is also going to be a new author. he has a new book coming out in april entitled our lost constitution. i hope you will look for it when it comes out in april. please join me in welcoming one of the -- one of conservatism's most famous fighters, senator mike lee. [applause] >> hello. thank you very much. it's great to be with you. thank you, dave, for the nice introduction. thank you for welcoming me here. it's a real pleasure to be with you. as dave just said, for those of

you that i haven't yet had the chance to meet, my name is mike lee. i am from utah. i'm not running for president. [laughter] i'm probably the only one up here today who can say that, but there's got to be somebody not running, after all. as i see it, i have a different task appear here than most of the other speakers today. the media and pundits and the consultants might not be so interested in my speech for that very reason. this is the slot in the program for them to grab a sandwich, and that's fine. my speech to them today isn't about them. it's for you. it's about you. i'm here for the same reason you are here. i'm here to listen, to watch, observe, learn. you and i, we have a job to do.

having endured unprecedented executive overreach by a guy who wants to make a law with a pen and cell phone whatever that means -- having endured trillion dollar deficits and spying, lying, and political targeting by our federal government, i am ready for the important task ahead. it is going to be our job here very soon to help choose the next president of the united states of america. [applause]

today we find ourselves in a position where we are less safe and less secure. we are less prosperous than we were a few short years ago. the world remains a very dangerous place. the american people have been asked by their elected officials in washington time and time again to just settle for what we have settle for deficits, deficits of all sorts. budget deficits, security deficits, and leadership deficits. most importantly, the american people are facing a different kind of deficit, a deficit of opportunity. this opportunity deficit is trapping poor families in poverty, rigging the system to benefit political and economic elites and squeezing everyone else, squeezing america's middle class in between. that must stop. [applause]

you see, we've got a federal government and a bipartisan political status quo that works for insiders on wall street, on k street, and pennsylvania avenue, while working families on main street are ignored forgotten, and far too often simply left behind. the job of the next president involves nothing less than restoring to all americans their god-given right to have a limited government of, by, and for the people. [applause] understandably, under the circumstances, the question that everyone seems to be asking is whether men and women thinking about running for president are up to the job trade -- job. we have got governors senators,

statesmen, men and women of great talent and integrity and courage who have a lot of experience. we have fresh faces and we have innovative ideas ready to shake up washington and help us revive that american dream. this is an exciting time to be a conservative. contrast the sunny enthusiasm on the right with the cold, gloomy, permanent winter that you see on the left. [laughter] the same old partisans and same old ideology are shuffling into 2016. determined, as it were, to incarnate and outdated holdover from washington's broke a political status quo. [applause] but enough about them. i want to talk about us.

that is what we're here to talk about today. the way i see it, the real question heading into 2016 is not whether the candidates running for president will be up to their job. the real question is whether conservatives who will choose the next president -- that is you and me -- whether we will be up to our job. i'm asking you right now, what do you say, are we ready? are we ready to pick the next great, transformative president of the united states? i'm right there with you, and i can say with absolute certainty i am ready with you. [applause] i hope all within the sound of my voice are ready too. let's be honest, in recent years we have not been. we are here today because we understand there is more we need to do than what has been done in

the past. since ronald reagan left the white house in 1989 -- good times, by the way, when we had him there -- since then, we have had six presidential elections. my party's nominee has lost the popular vote in 5 of those 6 elections that have occurred since then. if we don't choose a positive, principled, and proven conservative to run in 2016 that number is going to be a disappointing 6 out of 7. we can't let that happen. [applause] but those are the stakes. four republicans running for president, the most important part of their job will begin on january 20 2017, when they hope to take that elusive oath of

office. for those of us who are conservatives and you aren't running, the most important part of our job starts right here and right now. it is not going to be an easy choice. the 2016 field of candidates could be the best and the biggest that conservatives have ever seen before. and that's a good thing. [applause] we can't let ourselves get caught up in the hype. no we have a job to do. this is a time before campaigning truly begins in earnest for conservatives to think long and hard about the kind of candidate we are ready for. i would like to take a few minutes and tell you one conservative to another, about the leader i'm looking for and why i think you might be looking for him or her as well. [applause] thank you.

in one sense what i'm looking for in a president is very similar to what i'm looking for in a senator or governor, state legislator, or someone running for city council. i'm looking for a confident, thoughtful conservative i can trust to get the job done. but the presidency demands even more. the job itself is in norman. before he or she is elected as a successful -- elected, they must first build a successful party while up against a liberal media and self-serving political establishment. the substance of the job is even harder than the politics. it doesn't just involve national and international policy, but it also involves national and international leadership. a successful presidency depends on a messenger for the ages, one

that has a message for the moment. how do we find someone like that? i have been thinking a lot about that lately. i can't speak for anyone else, but it seems to me that conservatives should be looking for a candidate who is three things -- principled positive, and proven. [applause] first, what does it mean to be principled? principled means we need a candidate who is conservative every day and not just during the campaign. [applause] printable means there are no buts, no caveats, no qualifications. it means we are not going to see any -- we are not going to see a

candidate who says, i'm a conservative but, or, i'm personally pro-life, but -- and principled conservative does not hide behind talking points. he tells you what he thinks and why. that's not to say we have to agree on every issue. serious conservatives disagree all the time. we disagree from time to time on taxes, foreign policy,, you name it. this is crucial for conservatives making our choices as we head into the 2016 residential cycle. very often you learn more about a candidate when he disagrees with you on an issue. then you do what he happens to agree. don't get fooled. the principal conservative we are looking for is not necessarily the guy who just shouts the word freedom the loudest.

he's not necessarily the guy who dials up his criticism of the president to 11 or 12. he's not necessarily even the guy who tells the funniest joe biden jokes. did you hear what joe biden said the other day? [laughter] see how easy that one is. the principled conservative is one who when he disagrees with you on an issue, he admits it and he has the authenticity to explain his legitimate conservative reason for disagreeing with you. that is how you can tell the difference between someone who is a conservative only on the stump and someone who is truly a conservative in his head and heart. okay so we have talked about that. what does it mean next for a candidate to be positive? a great man once said a true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him

but because he loves what is behind him. [applause] as conservatives, we should aspire to this same standard. true conservatism isn't about the kind of government we don't want, at least it's not just about that. it's the kind of country we do want. this has been true since america's founding. as we all know the boston tea party was a defiant road test that we all remember and we all celebrate today. it would be only a footnote in history if that same generation of americans did not make their way to philadelphia 14 years later to write the constitution. to read the constitution that 227-year-old document the document that needs to control

more of the political discourse in washington than it does today. [applause] you would be surprised how often that document is disregarded or left out of a discussion altogether. that is what prompted me to write my book, "our lost constitution." the positive candidate i'm looking for can tell us much more than about what he's against. he can tell us what he's for. he's got a plan. he has specific political ideas about how to unite and grow our coalition, and specific policy ideas to reform government. this isn't just about candidates' ideology. it also speaks volumes about their character. one of the best ways for a candidate to show us about their character is by providing the american people specific details about their policy agendas

showing their work, just like in math class growing up, back in the good old days, before common core. [applause] back in the good old days, back when governor walker was still flipping burgers, as he described it. [laughter] if a presidential candidate tells you that he wants to repeal obama care but doesn't have a health-care reform proposal of his own, if he tells you that we need tax reform or we need to get rid of the irs but he can't say what his new tax plan would look like, if he tells us we need to secure our borders and reform our immigration system but he doesn't tell us how he would do that if he tells us we have to be more compassionate to the underprivileged but then equates compassion with broken government programs, the same kind of government programs that far too often trap poor families in poverty -- on the other hand,

if he tells us we need to cut welfare for the poor while protecting corporate welfare for big business, if he says we need to take on the special interests but then protects special interests in his own party or his own state, if his stump speech only criticizes other people's positions or mistakes instead of proposing solutions of his own then maybe we should keep looking for a different candidate. [applause] if, however, someone can offer our nation, this nation, a positive innovative, unapologetically conservative agenda the re-expresses our timeless convictions to fit the challenges of our times, then that is the candidate who can earn our trust and our support. [applause]

we have covered principles and positive. finally, what does it mean for a candidate to be proven? to me, it means two thanks. i'm looking for someone who is -- has proven himself by winning big, difficult fights on election day and at the same time, i'm looking for someone who is one big, difficult fight after election day, in office. we should not look for one or the other or roll dice. conservatives should demand both. someone who has stood tough on principle when the going got tough, and has the battle scars to prove it, yet someone who has also shown he can win broad

mandates and build the first coalition to overcome entrenched interests. the conservative candidate who ignores moderates is as misguided as a moderate candidate who ignores conservatives. the candidate we all deserve can attract both without alienating either. [applause] finally, a proven candidate will have proven him or herself in the arena, on the field, and with the rest of us, and not just from the sidelines. principled, positive proven. right now we don't have any candidates yet, and everyone deserves an equal chance to meet this standard, but that should be the standard. principled, positive, and proven is what we as conservatives need to challenge ourselves to become , and what we must expect from

our next president. the good news is that so far every serious conservative looking at this race meets at least some of this criteria already. that is not something we have always been able to say in the past. we are going to have a great field. that means we will have a tough choice ahead of us, but this is our job, and we have to do it. ladies and settlement, i'm going to put this as clearly as i can. if conservatives don't reduce and support a candidate who is all three of these things -- principled, positive, and proven -- and we will have no right to complain about whoever the washington establishment chooses to nominate instead. it won't be their fault. it will be ours. [applause] just imagine for a moment, if we

do find a candidate we are looking for, the happy warrior who knows what he stands for and for whom and with whom he stands, who knows how to pick the battles and also understands what it takes to win them, who champions free enterprise and civil society as networks of opportunity for individuals and communities can come together and solve problems that big government only creates or makes worse, who takes on the establishments and special interests of both political parties, and makes the conservative case for government of, by, and for the people, who unites our coalition and grows it by attracting support from millions of hard-working families that they left has simply left behind, who runs on a reform agenda modernizes and reinvigorates the right while exposing the elitist hypocrisy of the left. imagine for a moment someone who makes the case to a nation

gripped by economic insecurity and social isolation that here in america, freedom doesn't mean you are all on your own. freedom means we are all in this together. [applause] that is looking ahead. that is a candidate and a campaign we can all look forward to. more importantly, far more importantly, that is the candidate and the kind of campaign that the american people have been waiting for. it is the candidate americans deserve, and the one conservatives can produce, if we stay true to our own highest ideals and most stringent standards. that is the candidate i'm looking for in 2016, and i'm here to ask for your help. we can find that candidate and open the doors to a brighter

future and restore hope for a better america. thank you very much, and may god bless the united states of america. [applause] >> is everybody having a great time or what? mike lee is one of the greatest men, one of the greatest leaders in the united states, and i'm so proud to have him here. thank you. our next speaker is somebody that every one of you knows very well. he is one of america's most respected conservative leaders always at the forefront of defending traditional values and conservative principles. he has been a political leader for over 20 years, first winning

election to the u.s. house of representatives in 1990. as a young house member, he helped expose the corruption of the house bank, where both parties were passing bad checks. in 1994 he was elected to a seat in the u.s. senate, rallying conservatives with his slogan, join the fight. in the senate he continued to fight for conservative principles, becoming a champion of lower taxes, smaller government, and the right to life. he led on welfare reform, cheering the republican task force on welfare reform, authorizing the bill that would become the most significant government reform, one of the most significant government reforms in american history. his welfare reform bill would move millions of poor americans off government dependency and help them realize the dignity of a job and a paycheck.

and making the economy stronger, while shredding government. -- shrinking government. the senator also fought for lower taxes and responsible spending. he fought for traditional christian values in schools. he is also one of america's foremost advocates for a strong national defense, taking ronald reagan's mantra of peace through strength seriously. he has been one of the staunchest defenders of america's war on terror. in the senate he was a leading voice sounding the alarm on the threat of islamic extremism long before anyone was listening. after he left the senate he did not stop fighting for conservative principles, having been over the years one of the leading commentators in america. as all of you know, senator santorum ran for president in 2012, and he won your iowa

caucus, bringing staunch conservative values to a race that desperately needed them. he fought back against isolationist foreign policy and bringing his strong pro-life convictions to every single debate. america set up and took notice as he won the iowa caucus and 11 other primaries, and he took over 4 million votes nationwide. citizens united productions had the privilege of producing his documentary film, "our sacred honor," which educates america on our founding documents. i hope all of you have a chance to see that in the future. ladies and gentlemen please welcome my good friend, senator rick santorum. [applause] >> thank you.

thank you very much. thank you. it's great to be back in iowa. it's good to be back here at this theater, where the sweater vest was born. the first time i wore a sweater vest was when citizens united hosted an event here with mike huckabee, and i guess i gave a good speech. they thought it was the sweater vest, not me. typical. it is great to be back, to seize a many friends and meet some new friends. i have been asked over and over one question since i have been here. almost every person, same question over and over again. i'm going to end the suspense. i'm going to announce that bella is doing great. [applause]

karen and i want to thank each and everyone of you. we want to thank you for all of your prayers to the election when we were dealing with bella and her health issues, and all of them since. as you will find out soon, karen and i are publishing a book about raising bella. it is called "bella's gift." it is coming out in a couple of weeks. you will find out how your prayers were answered so many times through that time and what it is like raising a child who has a severe disability and the challenges and blessings it is. karen and i wrote the book jointly. we divided it evenly. we were going to write it together, and after an hour or so we figured that isn't going to work out too well.

you know karen. she's a very strong and principled woman. she has very strong opinions on things. we dealt with this issue differently. we decided to divide the book evenly. she has 11 chapters. i have 7. look forward to that. i am nostalgic here. three years ago, after you got to know me and karen and the kids, you heard me tell a story in johnston on caucus night on a very wild and crazy caucus night , i might add. i shared a story about a young teenage boy. as a young teenage boy i know that the side of my grandfather's -- knelt at the side of my grandfather's casket. i remember seeing just his hands, these strong, thick

meaty hands that dug coal until he was 72 years of age. i remember sharing with you that as i sat there and reflected on it, that those were the hands of an immigrant who came to this country after the first world war and brought his children later, that dug freedom for me. it is a story that each of you all americans have, of somebody an ancestor who created the opportunity for you to be an american to be a person who could pursue the american dream because you are standing on someone's shoulders. that wasn't what the campaign was always about. it became that, by going to a few dozen pizza ranches in iowa

and several meat and three's. if you're in south carolina, you know what a meat and three is. having town hall meetings and talking to the decent hard-working people of this country, the patriots who care deeply and are deeply concerned about this country and its direction right now, they are concerned about whether that american dream -- and that dream was what, to work hard, sacrifice, leave america and your family better than you found it, right? that is what the american dream is. a lot of people believe in america today that that dream has slipped away. i can spend the rest of the speech usually detailing why president obama and his middle-class economics have failed, failed miserably. i can be haranguing on obama care and his tax increases and government excess, all of those

things. what does that get us? how many people do we convince that they should vote for us by simply criticizing what the president does? that is there gain. they won the election in 2012 that way. it was divide, criticize, blame, not take responsibility for anything. that is their shtick. and what a horrible price they paid to win. this country -- now we look at it the 1% versus the 99%. black versus white. anglo versus hispanic. business versus labor. americans feel the division, and we are sick of it.

we need to do better. we need to do better because america deserves better. they deserve a group, a party a movement that is for policies that provide opportunity for everyone to reach that american dream and a message that unifies us. you're going to hear a lot of folks come in here today and you'll be privileged to a lot of people coming through iowa. that's the blessing of iowa. you will. but look for that message. mike lee is right. look for that message that could bring us together. because as good as it feels to hear the bad stuff, as good as it feels to beat up on the other side for the damage they've done to this country and it's been substantial, i know through