at partnership to build more than 17 ebola treatment units in all of our counties. and the military did also help with the laboratory testing that got a very fast turning around time of testing the ebola virus disease in less than four hours, the results are available. and logistics, also moving around with logistics through the peak of the outbreak, and so i think the military met that goal. so scaling down from april i think is a very good timing of time. but we have to. and what i do also know is that even if there is a case, which we don't pray for, to have more opportunities, there is an opportunity to get that kind of support back. but i think the requirement, they met their goal, worked to the very closely, to get ebola treatment units built, get logistics out there. make sure

that the laboratory system is strengthened, the capacity of our liberian military guys to do a job. >> so you feel confident that today you have, through the incident with the oversight of the incident management system you have access to sufficient ambulances and laboratories? you have the isolation and containment. you have the case investigation contact tracing teams, and the data coordination that that infrastructure is in place. it needs to be sustained and strengthened, and as you say within liberia itself, the biggest immediate challenge is montserrat county and monrovia proper, right? >> that's correct. the capacity is there. our response has reached optimum that we can respond effectively at any time. we can, every county has a well-built isolation unit with the u.s. general and myself were

in the last etu, second to the last etu where the results are. every county is having its own ebola treatment unit. that's the case management components out of it. so if there were any resurgence or increasing in the number of cases in any given county you have at least 50 to 100 beds isolation unit available. the way to better preposition our labs at a regional level there were nine labs that were taken to liberia. four of them have been placed in to regions so that we can have our testing capacity it does not affect the contract tracers, because the contact tracers are volunteers

some of them active case finders, moving house to house looking for the contacts. social mobilization also continuing. the only thing is that how we leverage the resources that went in the ebola response to build our normal health care system. is what we need to do now with right now the processes that are going on with building the resilient health care system. with costing a detailed plan. with prevention and control, look now at our health care facilities and how you leverage your resources and support the health care system. million to long-term, raising the kind of resources, yesterday trying to talk to our colleagues there to have some resources that we can raise for our health care system. liberia has that we are so looking up to finding

additional resources in there to support our health centers. human resource will help. it's a critical challenge. we lost a lot of our health workers. the confidence in the health care system has to be built so that people can have the confidence to utilize the health care system by doing that. you have to train more physicians, you have to train more physician assistance. you have to train nurses, midwife wives. we still have not got to the level yet where somebody can walk less than one hour to get to a health care facility. with that kind of system you need your community health workers to provide services for preventable diseases, improve your organization system, improve your human resource for health capacity.

strengthen infrastructure, supply chain and these services. but how do you leverage now these resources for ebola to get the health care system? and the united nations has also been very, very much helpful in the system with the organization, and for the first time the united nations established the united nations mission on ebola response for the first time for the u.n. security council to approve establishing a separate mission for ebola. we think that was very, very much useful. this multinational partnership >> can you say a word about two issues, and then i'd like to open to the floor? first is the regional context.

there's a lot of diplomatic activity at a very high level. trying to figure out how to coordinate and knit together across the county prefecture districts, on these large border areas where there's huge vulnerability of importation or just not knowing what's going on. so as you move towards zero within liberia, the bigger regional context becomes ever more important in understanding and beginning to get a better understanding and better control over that, and i know your president has been in the lead in trying to stir action in that area. where is that leading, in your view? >> that's a critical point from day one has been on the minds of the president of liberia. she's directed us as a team, to give support to the rest of the two countries. so, i remember we took some ppes that the personal protective equipment for ebola, the space suit that people were provided

some for sierra leone, we took some of our equipment and lab services, provided the facility, our health care workers, who have been mobilizing to also support sierra leone so we could get to zero at the same time likewise in guinea. we have one that has gone 62 days without ebola but across the border with guinea you have a town called lola that was very active, huge transition, they were reporting 50 cases per day. and so, if somebody left from lola, travel because we have parents in nima, so travel from guinea, and got nima infected, and similarly, in the area

people would leave and so right now we are very much concerned about how have gone more than 90 days without a single case. so the cross border i mention is very, very, very much critical. we have to work together as a team so to address that we're working at three-pronged approach. the technical team working together as one prong. the community engagement working together. and at a political level, the president, president sirleaf, president conte and working very closely together having summits to give all the support of technical people to move across border, move interventions across the three border areas, because if you see right now liberia, all of the counties along the border area with guinea, and sierra leone

for liberia, there is no ebola transmission taking place from the liberia side of the border. but across in guinea, there's active transmissions still going on and areas like our last counties near the border that got transmission of the disease, grankamar has gone 25 days without transmission. so the concentration is how can you is how can you go close to the kenyan border and if there are cases in guinea you can bring them across liberia, give them treatment in our treatment

unit -- make our active case community health volunteer community engagement, that kind of collaboration with guinea liberia, and have sierra leone. so we're working on that very closely. >> could you just say a quick word about the field trials that are beginning on the vaccines in particular but there's also a lot of work on therapeutics, rapid tests. but the vaccine's piece is -- it's historic. it's moving ahead at a very rapid pace. there's a lot of questions around this. can you say a few words about that? >> in liberia -- it's good you put me in this seat. because back home i'm always also in a hot seat about a vaccine trial trying to give explanation to the public about what it's all about, what we need to do about that, why did we at this time carry on vaccine trial.

but physically we are going to make history as a country to find a solution for ebola in the world. and this is not the first time liberia making history in the global public health community -- in liberia we were able to carry on research for river blindness. today we got 19 countries using the treatment for that in the region and we have the highest rating of ebola and so it's very much important for us as a country to finalize a solution and the lasting solution from my public health background is immunization and prevention.

immunization has made us in the world to eradicate smallpox. my professor and myself were in close discussion. he led the global efforts to eradicate smallpox in the world heading the whole global effort at hopkins and he was one of my professors at the johns hopkins university. this is another one sitting right there. and we eradicated smallpox in the world because of vaccination. today polio is also on the verge of eradication. we have three countries in the world that still have an active polio transmission. nigeria is one of those, but nigeria is doing very well now with polio. pakistan, somalia, india they

worked a few years to eradicate polio and this is because of vaccination. in our program on immunization we have nine different antigens, and the reason i'm giving this history is for us to have the confidence for the randomized clinical trial for ebola vaccine on the way right now in liberia to go ahead and for us to be hopeful that we can have a vaccine this year, a promising vaccine for ebola. so we have a site at one of our hospitals that's ongoing. before i left liberia on sunday we had about 80% already in the trial. it's expected by the first of

march we have the first 600 enrolled in this vaccine trial and monitor the situation before we can enroll 27,000 people as the protocol calls for. and this is under the leadership of the liberian government, the minister of health, the partnership with the u.s. government, national institute of health and the liberian government, liberia institute of biomedical research carry on this partnership. we are hopeful that if this vaccine works, we can have a lasting solution for the rest of the world for ebola. >> thank you. let's move to our audience. >> and therapeutic trials are also started with the zmapp. so we hope concomitantly they can go along and we can have therapies and vaccine ss if they can work by the end of the year, if we can have a vaccine for

ebola then i think we've made significant progress as a global public health community. >> thank you. we're going to take a number of comments and bundle them together so please be patient. we'll do three or four, come back and then do another round. we have about 35 minutes. we also have a number of people here who have been working very actively in liberia and i would like to hear from them. could you bring the microphone down, please? just introduce yourself and be very succinct in your comment or question, please. yes? >> okay, thank you and good morning. thank you both for the comments that have been made. >> please introduce yourself. >> i'm jacob hughs, i'm with hdi. hdi works in the ministry of health. we manage the pool fund the honorable minister mentioned and our program manager serves as a deputy to the minister on the management system.

the presentation was very enlightening about the very difficult experiences that the liberian people have endured. as you move post-ebola and you look to strengthen and rebuild the health systems, i wonder if you could share with us what you think are two or three of the key lessons that must be incorporated into this strengthening of the health systems to help prevent this in the future. >> thank you. dr. lacey can we get any thought? i know you need to leave. okay, sir, and then behind you. >> thank you. i also work with the president and i just want to thank you for your great work and i think your success was shown by the fact that the burial team people are wondering what they're going do when there's nobody to bury. so i think that speaks pretty

well of your success and you did a great job. thank you. >> thank you. great to see you. yes? >> good morning, my name is dan lucy i'm a physician at georgetown university and i had the honor to be able to work in monrovia at an ebola hospital from october 3 to november 14 and part of that in sierra leone in august. i'd like to thank the minister from coming here to work on the vaccine trials. i really appreciate also you mentioned the shocking number of health care workers in liberia infected with the ebola virus and those who have died. in fact, who this week put out their weekly update and i think it's around 830 health care workers in west africa all together who have been infected with the virus and almost 500

who have died. so i wonder if you could offer suggestions or ideas for how perhaps the region and the world could have helped more in terms of providing health care providers to take care of so many patients in liberia and in the region. particularly as you mentioned during the terribly dark days of july and august and september. >> thank you. down in front here we have a person who -- right here, yes. >> that was such a dynamic recount of the ebola outbreak in liberia and the multinational approach by the people of liberia to get us to zero and so i commend you and your team on the work that has been done there. i'm faith cooper, i'm actually an independent consultant but as of a couple of months ago i was with a d.o.d. health center that implemented the u.s.-africa disaster preparedness program so

i was in liberia in april of 2014 and back there in july of 2014, not necessarily related to ebola but we were working with the government coincidentally, we were working with the government to help in the development of the national pandemic preparedness plan which was supported by u.s. africa disaster preparedness program. so my question is, one, my observation at the time while i was on the ground was just the behavior of our people, the liberian people. i'm a liberian native. they didn't believe that ebola was real. and that caused a spike in the disease. so i'm interested in hearing about their approach now moving forward. i'm also glad you touched on the regional capacity building. because ultimately that's absolutely important for the region. but my specific question is the economic community of west african states mandates that all of its member nations at some point must have a disaster management organization that

oversees disaster management for the country. we were moving towards that progress in liberia. how will this experience in liberia contribute to the establishment of that entity that have will take responsibility for disasters in the country. >> let's take one other additional, in the back there. we'll come back to you in a moment. yes, sir? >> hi, name is charles sharp i'm with the black emergency managers association. i think she summed it up in terms of disaster management, in terms of the emergency management network. guinea, liberia, sierra leone, for the west african nations that needs to be established. i think your ims system was outstanding, setting that up the coordination with stakeholders involved and that's going to be a key to rebuilding your health care structures, especially from the community level. i want to commend you for all the work you've done. one other

thing with dr. lacy that he mentioned with the response to that, and usually response worldwide is how are volunteers getting reimbursed and paid? i think you're leading towards that. i met with him at georgetown and we discussed that. i didn't talk to you yesterday at the world bank but you mentioned that those plans you have in place, you're at that stage to build the liberian national emergency management system or agency. that's all i want to say. >> thank you. why don't we come back to tolbert and do a second round, i promise. >> thank you. and thank you. these are very, very critical and important questions that you all raised and i'm happy to touch on them. and the issue of post-ebola lessons learned. i believe very strongly one of the lessons learned that we need to take into rebuilding health care systems is the issue of ibc.

that's the prevention and control. we need to have infection prevention and com champions in all of our health care facilities. we need to have the ppes in place, that's gloves make sure that we train every health care worker to use the infection prevention control materials, that's the lesson learned. i know very well that the number of health care workers that died in liberia did not die because they were providing services in the etus, they died from our normal health care facilities, clinics that they were giving services and these are real top special is specialist positions, some of them that died in our major hospital so infection prevention control is very, very key in our health care facilities. and then a lesson

learned, that we need to improve and take over is the issue of surveillance system, we need to build a realtime surveillance system that would track every single outbreak, every single infectious disease, every single disease of epidemic potential in our health care system. human resources for health. there were a lot of health care workers that were trained in the ebola response. we used community health volunteers that provided by services, active case finders, how can we put these people to work for us in the normal health care facilities. and resource mobilization is key. as one of the lessons learned going forward to the post-ebola era we spend millions of dollars during the emergency, during the emergency phase of the ebola

outbreak. these resources will need to have very, very concrete support for the health care system. that can look at the critical blocks of our health care system. and if we do that supporting the national resilient health system plan before ebola we had a ten-year national health plan. before ebola we had an essential package of health services. we had a road map for the reduction of mortality. these are all great, great plans that we need to have resources to support. so those are the lessons that we need to move forward. for human resources, we spoke about that. i think to have training training is key. we need to train more health care workers, we need an

exchange of real-time trainers physicians that have the skills to go in our medical institutions. we did lose some of our professors that were teaching at the medical school. so some of the foreign medical teams, right now we're using some of them in our health care facilities. we need to get more to train our professional health care workers, provide them not only post-ebola but train them over the year as a long-term plan for liberia to have that kind of care of health care workers in place. behavior of people is critical. people died from the virus from the very beginning because of denial. but we learned the hard way, our citizens learned the hard way a lot of people lost their lives before we realized that. this disease is associated with behavior, touching people,

playing with dead bodies. so by the time they got to know in that community, ownership got into the process we began to turn and bend the curve so committee, ownership community engagement is very good. the disaster preparedness network actually spoke about we're all working on that before the ebola process with the u.s. department of defense through our ministry of defense, our ministry of internal affairs we're trying to get a regional disaster network. pandemic preparedness plan. i think that's very much necessary and critical. ebola has a lot of survivors that we need to concentrate on. the thinking was that ebola disease is 90% case fatality rate. but the liberian situation

we had like 50% case fatality rate. so a lot of persons that got infected from the virus did survive. we have 1,400 survivors in liberia, including -- we also have 3,000 plus orphans that the ebola disease created. these kids need our support. they need our blessing, they need our social as people of a civilized world to take care of them. these orphans need our care. >> do they face stigma? the survivors. >> oh, of course. a second time we had to create a camp for them where we had to put some of them and gave them that social support because some of them lost both parents, they lost their aunties, they lost

their brothers and so the government was providing support for some of them. and they face very many stigmas. one of president sirleaf's goal is to ensure that they can go to the same school like any other child being an ebola orphan doesn't mean that should be sent to another school so we're raising resources and trying to get international support, partnership, all sorts of support for these orphans, 3,000 of them. >> thank you. there's a hand down if we could get a microphone down here. >> i'm with the central intelligence agency. can you talk about the income of liberia's middle-class? what do they live on? >> and then behind.

>> i'm from johns hopkins and we're very proud of you at hopkins. >> thank you. >> you mentioned and many people have mentioned the weak health system and, of course, there was a civil war and you mentioned also the capacity building initiative after the war, the basic package. i'm sure you reflected and it would be really interesting to hear your insights on digging down, on what were the most specific impacts of the war and the health care building initiative that gave the possibilities to respond as you have? what were the strengths that were built into the experience and conversely what were the weaknesses that were revealed from the civil war and then the health care building initiative? >> thank you. could you just hand the microphone right behind and next to you?

we'll take the two of you. >> thank you for this presentation. i am with the international crisis group. i have two questions. the first one is regarding your role during the acute crisis phase. do you have any comments on the control measures such as the role of security forces and also how did the imf and the ministry of health adjust in october and november after being excluded from the initial planning talks in acura. >> can you repeat that one? >> the second question? >> the accra one. how the ims and the ministry of health adjusted after being excluded from the initial planning talks. >> this was in the first week of october? >> yes. >> when they had the planning talks in accra and the governments were excluded. >> we had tony banbury here last week and he walked us through

and that was a very interesting sort of moment in the evolution. yes, right here. we'll come back for another round. yes. >> hi, i'm katie brownwater, i'm with the defense department. i'm working on a suite of bio-surveillance programs. i was wondering as the outbreak started what did you find was the best method for disseminating information on the outbreak outbreak, not only to health care workers and professionals but to the general public? and how do you plan to continue providing information as we approach zero human cases? >> thank you, why don't we come back to you, tolbert? >> okay, as to the last one, we used multiple channels of communication. we did not use one channel. at one point we were using radio communication going on the radio, ebola is this, ebola is that, this is how you prevent it. but at some point we needed

other communication, so ipc was also great. we had two ipc. you had ipc for interpersonal communication. so with the multiple communication channels, ipc played a critical role. you cannot go on the radio if somebody lost their loved one from ebola and say you are a contact, you have to remain quarantined for 21 days so that you get the follow-up. you need to go to them first of all, show your solidarity, give psycho social support to them. so ipc was very, very much critical in the communication camp. and when communities after they got the information, they did find their own tax forces so there were tax forces all around the place from one community to another community and people were going from house to house telling others about what the disease is and all that. so multiple communication channels, printings of flyers, getting information to health care workers, printing of

posters, community engagement, town hall meetings, focus group discussions, all of those took place. but what is critical is the community ownership is very, very much critical. once the community knew that this is a very contagious disease they can turn the tide by themselves. there were times that the community had to put their own roadblocks if you got in a tesla -- taxi cab or a commercial bus the community would come out and quarantine you. so the community self-quarantined because they got the information. you got sick, they would call an ambulance very quickly to get you to the health facilities. so that community ownership was also critical in the information campaign. security quarantine

did not work well. it wasn't one of the strategies of those dealing with the process in liberia. we had lessons learned, what worked and what didn't work. security quarantine didn't work very well so we had to change our strategy. community quarantine did work to say okay, we the community will take the initiative, we don't have to be policed by military, we don't have to be police bid security personnel, we can understand and then when they themselves got engaged, when they themselves owned the situation then we started to see great, great level of improvement. the other situation, they were planning a u.n. agency because what we did was when the planning meeting was over whatsoever was developed in accra, in liberia we worked with the crisis manager, mr. peter graf and his boss mr. tony

banbury who i know very, very well because we worked together. we were able to own our plan as a country so we did work together, strategized together changed some of the indicators playing there accra and made it a liberian-owned plan and that was endorsed by our president's advisory council meeting. the president of liberia chair a council called the presidential ebola council chaired by madam president and that plan was presented to the president and we were able to adopt that plan with our own liberian base and contacts in liberia. with the strength in the system, the ebola did expose the weakness of our health system. we thought we were doing the right things, we thought we had

a strong system. it was not as strong but coming from war with all of the efforts that we made, getting our supply chain system, try to improve, training a lot of medical doctors, training nurses, trying to also look at all of the building blocks of our health care system. but when ebola started we knew it exposed our health care system. so there's a lot of work to do with the health care system. but what was also the strength was that there were a lot of trained people that knew what to do. so when the ebola crisis started, we did not wait for the international community to come before we start. we already started dealing with the situation even before the international help came in september we did work with our people and that also helped in

dealing with the situation. >> thank you. let's -- we've got a lot of hands up. let's start in the back over on this side here in the back row. there's two gentlemen there. >> hi, i'm from global communities. thank you very much for coming. and you've been a great partner of ours during the implementation of the response. and i wanted to ask about the mix of implementation approaches of the response, one being implementers that are coordinated by the ims and by the government and then the other with support being given directly to the government to implement itself. it's something that we thought was really interesting, how that was very mixed in its approaches and i wanted to get your thoughts on effectiveness on

both sides of the clinical and non-clinical side of the response. >> thank you. could you just in front of you -- yes. there. >> hello, mr. minister. my name is gerry martin, i'm the director of a new aid program called preparedness and response and we're focused on looking at emerging pandemic threats originating in zoonotic diseases and of course ebola is a zoonotic disease. post-ebola, what approach do you see being taken to -- for preparedness and response for diseases that may be of unknown origin and what lessons have you learned from the ebola outbreak? >> just hand it to the woman next to you there, please. >> erin taylor from georgetown. i wonder if you could talk about how women and children were

uniquely impacted and what planning you're thinking about relating to women and children going forward. >> thank you, and hand it right to paul in front of you. >> my name is paul lemur, i'm a retired foreign service officer with u.s. aid. i have a couple questions you might have insight on. one is the response in liberia seems to have been different than the response in guinea, particularly on community social mobilization and communication and so forth and i'm wondering if you can -- you must have had some experience with guinea as well. without criticizing, if you can tell us how it was that you were able to be more effective in your community mobilization efforts than maybe other countries that we've heard about were. the second question is in terms of the u.s. response, which i think we're all proud of, we have seen some reporting here in the u.s., some criticism saying

-- not criticism but saying that it was late and i'm just wondering if you can comment a little bit on that from your perspective on the ground. was it late? wasn't it late? >> thanks, paul. that woman just to your thank you. >> thank you so much. i'm with the corporate council on africa and i was wondering if you could speak a little bit to the private sector response both in terms of ngo nonprofit and more especially business sector, how did they respond? what type of partnerships have you seen? and what would you like to see from the private sector moving forward to build a stronger health system? >> thank you. let's come up here. and then we'll come back to you, tolbert. >> hello, thank you so much for your time and perspective this morning. >> please identify yourself. >> i'm christine, i work at the national institute of health. and i was wondering if you could

speak a little bit more upon the psychological remnants of the scare of ebola in your community and the stigmatization of orphans that you mentioned and if you could speak more upon the experience of batting the fear and anxiety that ignited in your community and different ways you learned to incite hope in the challenge of this aggressive disease. >> thank you. >> okay, thank you. the coordination of the response, clinical and non-clinical, i think, is a very, very interesting one. what guided us was one strategy, one program, one response. that was the slogan, that was the goal. so all of our international partners that came in to help in the response in liberia, the message was one response, one strategy, one program. under the leadership of the government. under the leadership of the president. so the president of liberia got very, very much involved. we saw

that uniqueness coordination togetherness of the people of liberia, government and the people when we got to know that this was a common enemy. and so under the leadership of president sirleaf, she did empower us as liberians who had the technical know how as public health experts to work with our international police, with also public health knowledge deal with this situation. at the very beginning it was a bit difficult. it was a bit chaotic because you have this was -- or this is the health response. this is a public health crisis. so it has to be dealt with by the ministry of health of liberia so the government did realize that and the president did put the ministry of health in charge so we developed the

thematic areas that are mentioned, case management laboratories, psycho social support, social mobilization surveillance. all of these thematic areas our international partners have technical areas. so ims, with these areas, we did work together as a team so when i chaired the ims meeting, i put cdc on the spot. i said cdc, you are the experts for liberia. you're here to work with our liberian team, i need a presentation in the ims meeting of what happened, why there are cases where we're not testing anyone in 24 hours. and cdc knew they were in charge with lab of our team.

they had the resources, they took responsibility as an institution. if there's an issue with awareness, social mobilization a look in the affairs of the representative of unicef and say, look, the world mobilized resources for unicef to support and respond with social mobilization, that's not a clinical part. if there were issues with clinical part like treating people in ebola treatment unit, in the ims meeting and say, look, as a government people are not being treated, people are rejected in the street, we need to get these ebola treatment units in place immediately to treat people. so with surveillance, who and cdc were also in charge. so with cdc epidemiologists, we asked them, we have to do this. so that's how the cohesiveness of the response, one response,

one strategy when it came to logistics we asked the bfp chaired by a liberian co-chair bid the bfp. so we've got planes, boats to move those things so it was a unique response in liberia with the great support from our international partner because we held them accountable and we're still holding them accountable if there are areas we didn't have the resources as a country, we know there were mobilized resources from the u.s. government so those agencies in the field they were implementing had dignified burials. you had the ifc and as a u.s. ngo called global communities sponsored by usaid, they played a very, very

critical role in the ebola management. in less than a month we were able to establish 74 burial teams with logistics in all of our counties. so i can -- in my ims meeting if a body stayed more than 24 hours and was not picked up from the community and buried, global community has to answer questions why isn't it working? or they have to tell me the next day why is this county not picking up the dead bodies on time? so that was a response that we managed. worked with our partners and i think it worked very well. post-ebola preparedness and response, one lesson learned why we still battling ebola we're working with our international partners again like cdc the center for disease control has an agency

called the cdc foundation and also working with e-health. as we speak we're now building permanent emergency operations centers for liberia each of our counties we are working with them to build eocs in counties for preparedness and response. so we're leveraging the ebola crisis to rebuild our health care system with that also. women and children were highly affected. very highly affected. our market women were very much moving from one country to another. we had a liberian woman flying from liberia to dubai into china in the united states and into the region in guinea and in ghana, a liberian woman would get on the airplane, buy their produce, get into the market in liberia. guess what happened?

all of the airplanes stopped flying to liberia except brussels i don't know how you have me at this forum if brussels didn't fly me here because everybody was afraid of ebola. so that affected women. our country's closed borders, ghana closed their border, guinea closed their border, senegal closed their border. at some point market women cannot travel to go to one country to get their produce to the market in liberia. that affected the economic and social impact. children got infected. their mothers, parents, died. there are 3,000 orphans. we're working together as a region guinea, liberia, and sierra leone. there are things working very well in guinea that we learned

lessons from. and there are things in liberia that guinea learned from. and the fact that liberia is getting on zero put a pressure on guinea and sierra leone. it also put pressure on partners, organizations and countries with larger partners that supported those countries. so there are lessons that we're learning from each other as countries to move forward. but i think the major thing is working together in the community, that community engagement component. so force cannot do it. you have to get a community involved and make sure that they do the right thing. the understand response, somebody asked whether or not it came late. the entire world came late to the ebola crisis. the entire world came very late to the ebola crisis. the world health organization made a

mistake. that's one of the lessons that we have to learn as the global health community. disease has no boundaries. if it is in southeast asia, if it is in europe, if it is in america, especially countries that don't have the capacity, developing countries, especially sub-saharan african countries have weak systems. we know the ebola crisis since 1976 and we knew very well it was the first time it was entering capital cities with huge populations. the world would have intervened in march and april and june or may. but we intervened late. so the whole world, there's a

lesson learn eded. ban ki-moon the secretary general of the united nations visited liberia, we sat together, we had discussions the world bank president did visit liberia, usaid administrator sent a message to call of them, including you, i told you in monrovia that the world came late but when they came they came very big. they came very big. the united states government came very big to the rescue of liberia. we did appreciate that. i'm very, very optimistic that the president of liberia did appreciate the government by deploying the military, by building our laboratory system for ebola, for getting us to zero on time is because of the support that the u.s. government did send from all walks of life. usaid was there, cdc came with epidemiologists, we had the u.s. military moving in with

logistics which was done in march or april. we would have lost 3,000, we would have lost 8,000 lives in the region, 20,000 people would have been infected from the ebola virus disease today. they came late, they came huge and supported us and we appreciate that. >> tolbert, i think that's a very resounding, compelling, conclusion to our 90 minutes together this morning. thank you so much for being so compassionate and candid and detailed and taking on all of these multitudes now issues with such clarity and sensitive and thank you for the leadership that you have demonstrated and sustained over many months. your contribution is just enormous and the story that you tell is a very positive story at the end of the day and so thank you so much for being with us. congratulations on the results. [ applause ] >> thank you.

>> we look forward to having you return again to pick up this story in the next phase.

>> i'm announcing today i will resign as governor of the governor of oregon. it is the stand and fight for the cause. i apologize to all those people who gave of their face, time, energy and resources to elect me to a fourth term last year and supported me over the past three decades. i will continue to pursue our common cause. it is deeply troubling to me to realize that we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, tried convicted and accepted by the media with no due process and no

independent verification of the allegations involved. even more troubling and on a very personal level who has given 35 years, so many of my former allies have been willing to accept this judgment at its face value. it is something for me to comprehend. something we might expect in washington, d.c. but surely not in oregon. i do not know what it means for our future, but i do know it undermines the state. nonetheless, i understand that i have become a liability to the very institutions and policies. as a former presiding officer, i understand the reasons which i have been asked to resign. i wish all on both sides of the aisle success in this legislative session and beyond and i hope they are committed to carrying the forward of bipartisanship and cooperation that has marked the last four years in oregon. in 1968, i was inspired to commit my life to public service. 41 years ago, i started work as an emergency room doctor with a goal to make

life better. ever since then, i kept that focus by trying to make things better for the people and the communities in this state that i love. i have had the extraordinary privilege of pursuing that work as a state representative, state senator and as your governor. over those years, i had the honor of being part of those remarkable achievements. we rebuilt an oregon economy in every region of our state. unlike many parts of our nation we did it with cooperation and respect for oregon and for each other. we successfully defended oregon's national heritage of clean water, clean air. and created watersheds in 90 watershed councils and supported our world communities and create jobs while enhancing the environment.

we stood up for the principle that every one deserves respect and rights including the right to choose and marry the person we love. we have stood by our working men and women. we have transformed our health care system while lowering costs. 9 % -- 95% of the people of oregon will go to bed knowing they have health insurance coverage. three-day special session, we reformed our public pension system, provideded tax relief and raced for public health and education. we have pursued the goal of equity and opportunity especially for those who have been left behind. communities of

color, english-language learners and those in poverty and those that are very young and very old. we have laid the groundwork in ensuring 90% of our children could be reading at level in five years and poised to reach agreements that will resolve the crisis in the klamath basin. as important as what we have accomplished it, how we have accomplished it is very more important. we have overcome partisan differences. that has faltered. we have rebuilt a function political center reaching across party lines to do important things by rebuilding communities to help right the ship and chart a better course for the future. i ran as a fourth term to continue that progress but the questions have been raised about my administration, specifically allegations against me concerning the work down by my

fiance. i'm confident that i have not broken any laws or taken any actions that were dishonest. that is why i ask both the ethics commission and the attorney general to take a look at my actions and i will continue to fully cooperate with those ongoing efforts. once they have been concluded, you will see i have never put anything before my love for and commitment to oregon and faithfully fulfilling the responsibilities of the public offices i have had the honor to hold. this process will take months. i have always had the deepest respect for the remarkable institution and for the office of the governor and i cannot in good conscience continue to be the element that undermines it. i have always tried to do the right thing and now the right thing to do is to step aside. one thing i hope

people know about me is i love this state and its people, it is because of that love that i tender my resignation as governor effective 13 -- february 13. origin will be in good hands and i wish it well -- john will be in good hands -- oregon will be in good hands and i wish it will. >> with the resignation on wednesday, the secretary of state will become governor. the "portland oregonian" newspaper reports that she says her and her staff are ready to become governor.

>> mexico former hewlett-packard -- next, former hewlett-packard ceo carly fiorina. and then rand paul was remarks at the spectra energy luck. -- with remarks at the spectator door garygala. carly fiorina spoke of a politics and eggs breakfast in new hampshire. she says she is considering a run for the presidential nomination. the politics and eggs breakfast series dates back to 1986 and is cohosted by the institute of politics at certain and some college and the new england council -- saint anselm college and the new england council. >> thank you.

as some of you know, i spent several years in wisconsin as president of an institution before coming to new hampshire and we have a four days like today, it is called summer -- a word for days like today, it is called summer. [laughter] carly fiorina is the first woman ceo of hewlett-packard and the first to lead a fortune 500 company. she was named by "fortune" magazine as one of the most powerful women in american business. in 2010, she was the nominee for the u.s. senate from california. she has been a member of many boards, including kellogg company, world economic foundation, and the united states china board of trade.

she currently serves as the chair of the unlocking potential , which seeks to help female conservatives. last week, or just speaker was trucked out from nbc and i asked -- our speaker was shocked target from nbc and i asked who he thought had the greatest potential -- chuck todd from nbc and i asked you thought -- who he thought that the greatest potential of people not forward regularly and he said carly fiorina. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome carly fiorina. [applause] >> well, good morning.

it is a great pleasure to be with you this morning at the legendary politics and eggs. thank you for that gracious introduction. i know when speaking with many of you that you were sick of these snow but i think it is a beautiful winter wonderland i must say. especially in this charming place. a colleague and all in from albany, new york -- and i drove in from the, new york. we had dinner with another colleague in the restaurant. if you have never been to the restaurant here, it is really beautiful and charming and the food is delicious. but we walked in, it was empty last night, except there was a couple talked into a corner. -- tucked into a corner.

they had champagne and we were allowed when we came in and i said so, we are probably disturbing your romantic evening here. we woman looked at me and said no, this is my brother. [laughter] good morning, i am happy to be your. -- be here. whenever i receive a gracious introduction it always sounds smooth and no one's legislative and mine has not been either -- life is smooth and mine has not been either. i will start by telling you a little about myself because i think all of us in this room have benefited tremendously by living in this country and meeting people have taken a chance on august and that is certainly true with me -- on us and certainly that is true with me.

my mother was my sunday school teacher and she gave to me a plaque that said, what you are is god's gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to god. i thought about those words growing up because i did not feel gifted, i was a two shoes middle child. -- goody two shoes middle child. i went off to college, i was fortunate enough to be admitted to stanford university but i graduated with a degree in medieval history and philosophy. so i was all dressed up with nowhere to go, completely unemployable. with apologies to the lawyers in the room, i went off to law school. my dad was a law professor and wanted me to follow in his footsteps.

i really hated school and i quit every single semester. i needed -- after a single semester. i needed to earn a living so i did full-time what i did part-time to my way through school. some of you are -- enough to remember kelly girls -- old enough to remember kelly girls. retired and answered phones on a temporary basis for local businesses -- we typed and answered phones on a temporary basis for local businesses and one of my jobs was hewlett-packard. i answered an ad, accepted the first offer, and became a receptionist in a nine person real estate firm. i sat in the front of that office and answered phones and greeted clients and type files.

-- typed files. i had no sense of what the future was like, i just needed to pay the rent. six months into the job, two men that work there came to my desk and said we have been watching you and think you could do more than files. you want to learn something about business? those men change the trajectory of my life because they saw that changed the trajectory of my life because they saw possibilities and me. -- possibilities in,e me. i have traveled all over the world and lived all over the world and i know that it is true in 2015 that it is only in this country were a young woman can start out as a law school dropout and secretary and become

the chief executive of the largest technology company in the world that is only possible in the united states of america. and it is possible because our founders knew what my mother taught me. they had what was at the time it radical insight and that radical insight was that everyone has a god-given gift, but everyone has potential. -- and everyone has potential. that is what they meant when they said "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." that further had what was it radical insight when they said the opportunity -- what was considered a radical insight when they said the opportunity is given by god and true not be taken away government. everyone has gifts and

potential. in fact, right before i came here, i was in india for a week. i served as chairman of an organization called opportunity we are the largest micro-finance organization in the world, we have lent $8 billion $150 at a time. 93% of our clients are women 97% in india. in addition to holding a board meeting, i and others traveled to the slums of new delhi to see clients. they are pretty horrific. people are piled on top of one another, there are problems of trash -- mounds of trash, sewage. we sat with women to whom we had

given a chance, a helping hand. what we have said to these women is you have god-given gifts. you have potential. you, despite your terrible circumstances, you have the capacity to live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. and we are going to take a chance on you. amidst this really desperate scene were beautiful courageous women dressed in multicolored clothing. and in their eyes was a lookout of desperation. in their eyes was -- was not a look of desperation. in their eyes was a look of determination to build a better lives for themselves and their families. everyone does have the capacity and the desire to live a life of

dignity and purpose and meaning and everyone has more potential than they realize. i tell you that story about those two men because i learned something else that they although i did not realize it at the time. you see, when i was a young woman, i thought that leadership was about the people that had the big offices, the big titles, the big perks, the big parking place. if you had a big office, you must be a leader. as i grew older and wiser, i came to realize there are a lot of people with offices who do not lead -- big offices who do not lead. i came to realize that management and leadership are different things. management is the production of acceptable results within existing constraints and conditions. managers accept the constraints

in which they operate and do the best they can within those constraints and conditions. it is important but it is not leadership. what i learned from those men many, many years ago is the highest calling of leadership, is to unlock potential in others, because everyone has it. the highest calling of leadership is to walmart potential in others by changing the order of things, not by accepting constraints and conditions that exist simply because they have been there but i seeing something different something better. having a vision that says that these women can live a life of dignity and meaning or this young girl can do more than type and file or our country can be once again a place where every american can live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning.

leaders, you see, change the order of things. they see possibilities and they focus others' potential off-season those possibilities -- on seizing those possibilities. i have traveled all across the country in the past 10 years and i have talked to a lot of people about a lot of subjects and one of the things that i sense in this nation is disquiet. disquiet. people are afraid we are losing something. and people think we are missing something. i think what people think we are losing is what a man told me at a rotary club in new hampshire last summer. i gave a speech at seacoast and a man came up to me and said, you know, i do not think we

think of ourselves as a country of unlimited potential anymore. i think that is right. i think that is what americans fear we are losing, the sense of limitless possibility. that if it were worth doing, we would do it. that anything we could dream about, we could accomplish. that our children's futures would be better than our own. that is as core to we are as life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. people fear we are losing that and you can see it in poll after poll. for the first time, people think their children's future will be more constrained than their own. people know we are missing something. what people know we are missing his leadership. of the leadership that understands the highest calling is to unlock potential in

others that understands that the mission is to see and sees possibilities so that the -- seize possibilities so that the nation can be a place of limitless possibilities for everyone. and that is why i am giving very serious consideration for running for the presidency of the united states because i think that our nation is at a critical, pivotal point. and i think sometimes that the managers within the existing political system, it is not that they are not good people, it is not that the bureaucrats within agencies are not good people, but sometimes people have been within a system for so long they cannot see it for what it is anymore. and they spend all of their time constrained by what has already been in place and cannot see the possibilities anymore for changing the order of the.

-- of things. i am absolutely convinced that all of our wounds are self-inflicted, but all of our problems represent opportunities as well and we have marvelous opportunities in this, the 21st century were more things are possible that at any time in human history. so i think we need leadership now that focuses us on three fundamental things. first, this must be an economy that allows everyone to find and use their god-given gift. what does that mean, what does that really mean? it means first that every child actually must have a great education. and every worker, every worker who was laid off as an opportunity to be retrained so they are qualified it has an opportunity to be retrained so

they are qualified -- has an opportunity to be retrained so they are qualified for the 21st century jobs. i remember when the teachers union struck in chicago over the issue of pay for performance. the head of the teachers union to the microphones and she said this. week cannot be held accountable for the per -- we cannot be held accountable for the performance of children in our classroom does too many of them are poor and come from broken families. what was she saying? she is saying that if you are poor and come from broken families you do not have potential, you do not have god-given gifts. every child wants to learn, it is a natural instinct of children. and may i say i think this is the fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals.

i am a conservative because i know our values and principles and policies work better to unlock potential in people, i know they work better to lift people up, and i know that every one of us is equal to everyone of us. know what is better and we all have got -- no one is better and we all need a helping hand. when i battled cancer i needed a helping hand, when we lost our younger daughter my family needed a helping hand. but i also know that everyone has the capacity to live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning and i do not believe that some liberals believe this. i think they think that some are smarter than others, some are better than others, so some will take care of others. they do not say it that way

but actions speak louder than words to me. we are not only do not the opportunity to be educated, which is their opportunity to live a life of success, but we also are cropping people in a web of dependency -- trapping people in a web of dependency that it is agonizing to get out of. his you are a single mother you do not want to be dependent, the choices you have to make our agonizing. -- are agonizing. i met a woman in albany that runs a beauty salon. so many of her young women say set goals for these young women murder you want to be, and so many of them come to me and say i cannot work as many hours because i will lose my chance to get programs that keep her dependent. what an awful choice we are

asking them to make. we have to make sure everyone has an opportunity at a great education, we have to make sure we break this web of dependence, and finally we have to make sure that people have jobs. if you asked for people what they need, they will tell you three things -- ask for people what they need, they will tell you they need three things. a helping hand, a job, and transformation in my life. because dignity comes from work. when we insist on a work requirement from welfare, it is not because we are trying to save money, it is because we are trying to save lives. the only way the economy will grow at the level it is capable of is if we reinvigorate mainstreet entrepreneurship. most americans get their chance the way i did, at a little f

irm. family owned businesses create two thirds of jobs in this country and employ half of the people. i was proud as the ceo of hewlett-packard that we were generating 11 that and say day but small businesses innovated at seven times the rate. small business is the growth and innovation engine of our economy. and what is happening today? for the first time in u.s. history, we are destroying more businesses than we are creating. 70% of small business owners say that government is hostile to them. and i am not talking about -- when i talk about main street entrepreneurship i am not talking about steve jobs orbital and dave or -- or bill and dave were mark zuckerberg, those are great entrepreneurs but they are not who i am talking about.

i am talking about the corner coffee shop, the loan service company, the hair salon -- lawn service company, the hair salon. these are the people that drive the economy and these people are struggling. it is interesting because companies are doing fine, the stock market is doing fine. elizabeth warren is right, you know. crony capitalism is alive and well. but elizabeth warren is dead wrong as to why. only big business can deal with the government, -- big government, to hire lobbyists. the bigger government gets, businesses have to get bigger in order to survive. as you doubt that, look at what has happened as a result of dodd frank. 10 banks to big to fail have become five banks to big to fail and now the community banking

system the community banking system that gives small businesses their loans the community banking system that has been the backbone of main street america, the community banking system is struggling and the little guys are not getting credit. because the little guys cannot deal with all the complexity that is in place. you know the results of obamacare or not, whether you like you are not the facts are these. it is more words than a harry potter novel. it is accompanied by 35,000 plus words of regulation, nobody can possibly understand it. the industry is consolidating to deal with it. you have one hospital in network at new hampshire hospitals are consolidating and we do not have a competitive health insurance marketplace, we never have had a competitive health insurance marketplace and we do not now.

which is why the second thing that must have been in this nation in order that people use their god-given gifts and fulfill potential and coordination to be a place of limitless possibility, the second thing that must happen is we must fundamentally reform government. we cannot tinker around the edges anymore. our government has become so large, so inefficient, so corrupt, so powerful, so costly, that it is literally crushing the potential of this nation. and by the way, it has been getting bigger and bigger and bigger for f40 years. imagine a business that got more money every year regardless of performance, where there were no metrics for success, where investors had no idea how their money was being spent. measured a business whose customers had choices and for which -- imagine a business

whose customers have no choices and for which there is no competition. that is the federal government today. reform is necessary and it takes imagination and vision so let me tell you a little story. 2007, less than 10 years ago the iphone was introduced. hard to believe, our life has changed so fundamentally in less than a decade. but that's not of technological innovations permit any person -- that set of technological innovations permits any person anywhere to get information any time. when i was in new delhi meeting with the women, i asked everyone of them, do you own a cell phone? every one of them proudly held up their cell phone and said this is not my husband, it is mine. why did i ask them?

because i can deliver a line of credit to a desperately poor woman over a cell phone but if you are a veteran and you return from fields of battle, you have to spend months filling out paperwork, many more months having a bureaucrat somewhere in the va review your paperwork so that they can make sure that you deserve the benefit that you have already earned -- benefits that you are already earned. you have to wait many more months to get an appointment at a va hospital to be seen. this is shameful and has been going on for decades. to you know there is a regional headquarters in winston -- you know thatdo there is a regional headquarters in winston-salem where the foundations had to be reinforced because the weight of the paperwork is damaging the building? and what happened when the

scandal burst onto the front pages? a bipartisan group of congressmen and senators took to the floor and declared victory because they passed a bill that said that the top 400 senior executives at the veterans administration could be fired if they did not perform. it is not that that is not important, it is that it should have happened a long time ago and it is not enough to fundamentally reform a system. we cannot unlock the potential of every american in this nation until we get the leviathan the federal government off the backs of this economy. and i believe it takes leadership, and his citizenship -- and citizenship, in order that that would happen. and finally, we must restore american leadership in the world. the world is a more dangerous and a more tragic place when america is not leading. i have had the great privilege

of traveling the world and i know most of the world leaders on the world stage today. and i know that in every problem, there is an opportunity. i have met vladimir putin and it is very clear when you spend any time with him at all this is -- that his ambition cannot be stopped by a gimmicky red reset button. this is an opportunity for the nation to lead, to rebuild the nato alliance, to convince european partners they must invest more heavily in their own defense. and there is an opportunity to rebuild the eastern european defenses which the president foolishly and unilaterally withdrew. i know yahoo! and i know he -- benjamin netanyahu and i know that he is coming not to poke a stick in the presidents i or to violate protocol -- president's

eye or to violate protocol, he needs us to hear how dangerous iran is. i remember being in israel and meeting with the head of military intelligence and all of them wanted to speak about? iran. and it is five years later. and of course we see isis and the terrorist groups around the world trying to compete with them, we see the cycle of brutality escalating. i was at the national prayer breakfast the other day sitting next to king abdullah's drug union representative. -- representative. president obama is comparing prices to the crusades and betraying a lack of moral clarity. king abdullah goes on, promptly executes -- home, promptly

execute to convicted terrorists, and begins bombing because he knows that forceful leadership is necessary in the face of such brutality. [applause] hillary clinton once asked what difference does it make? it makes a huge difference when our embassy is purposefully attacked by terrorists on the anniversary of 9/11 and four murray americans including our ambassador or murdered, it matters -- are murdered, it matters. and it sends a signal when the only response we give is to arrest one person one year later and have them in jail in manhattan. a signal goes around the world. in the brutality of isis is an

opportunity and the opportunity is to build a different kind of alliance in the middle east. king abdullah said, we are in this to win it but everyone must be in it. and it was not just talking to arab brethren, he was talking to the united states of america. there is an opportunity because we face a common enemy to bring together israel and jordan and uae and the iraqis and the egyptians and maybe the turks in a different kind of alliance to defeat this evil but it will not happen without american leadership. we face lots of challenges. we face lots of problems. but the truth is, in every problem lies in opportunity. every wound we have is self-inflicted. we can fix all of this, we can restore american leadership and grow the economy, we can give everyone the opportunity to find

god-given gifts and live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. but it will require leadership that understands its highest calling is to unlock potential in others and to change the order of things. and it will require citizenship citizenship on behalf of every american, on the part of every american to stand up and say this should be the greatest century in the history of our great nation. and we must fulfill the promise of this nation because we are a force for good in the world and we are the greatest nation on the face of the earth and in all human history. thank you so very much, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] thank you so much. thank you so much. thank you. thank you.

i think we are going to take a few questions. >> i can direct them. who has a question? yes? >> my name is rob warner. how would you change the order of things and declare american leadership globally with the challenge of climate change. >> so i think we need to look at the entire science. there is a lot of consensus among scientists that climate change is real, that human activity contributes to it. there is also absolute consensus among those same scientists that a single nation or a single state acting alone can make no difference at all.

and so what i resent, frankly is when people use half the science to destroy lives and livelihoods in coal mining communities because it will not make any difference at all. when people use half the science to destroy lives and livelihoods in the central valley of california an area, the richest agricultural land in the world that has been decimated and destroyed in a man-made drought because of climate change. and i believe the answer to this problem is to understand the science. we can shut down everything in this country and it will make no difference because the scientists are clear. in order to really combat this we need an effort that is global in scope over many decades costing trillions of dollars.

and so i believe, as with many problems, the answer to this problem is not regulation, it is innovation. and frankly speaking, the gpa is shutting down every ounce of innovation in this area and i do not think we are paying attention to all of the science. i think too many politicians are paying attention only to be part of the science that confirms their ideology -- the part of the science that confirms their ideology. let's understand the science and innovate. >> good morning morgan. i was interested in your story about being a medieval history major. >> i bet you are. [laughter] >> largely because the people from the institute of art would tell you that the liberal arts have been the backbone of the higher education community and yet today we are telling

students they have to go into stem, they have to go into science and they should not study what they love. i wonder if you can talk about the opportunity for education and opportunities for student. s. >> with pleasure, because as i say to young people all the time, not worry about getting the perfect job, just get a job. every job you get you will learn something about yourself, you will learn skills. that me tell you why i was a -- let me tell you why i was a medieval history student because i had a great teacher. you have a great teacher that inspires you to learn about. something. but the most valuable course i took was a gradual course in medieval philosophy. why?

because every week, we had to read a work of medieval philosophy. aquinas, maimonides. these were not brief guys. [laughter] these were big weighty tomes. every week we had to read one of these volumes entered in a two-page paper that summarized it -- and turn in a two-page paper that summarized it. i will write 20 pages and i would get it down to 10 and then 25 and finally to two pages -- to five and finally to two pages. i learned how to think, i learned how to separate the really significant from the less meaningful. i learned how to make judgments. what do you learn in philosophy,

among other things in life? you learn about ethics. you see as different as this 21st century is, and technology and globalization make it very different than any other century, but as different as the century is, there are some things that remain the same. judgment matters. ethics count. character is everything. and the ability to separate all of the stuff that is around us and decide, this is just superficial and this is really important, those are skills that last a lifetime. i think it is a tragedy when we are even contemplating saying, we are going to judge for your colleges on the pieces of starting salaries -- four-year colleges on starting salaries of students. it is a tragedy that the

government thinks the solution is to nationalize the stupid that programs. -- student debt programs. what happens when you get rid of competition? i come from the most hypercompetitive these regulated industry in the world and it is the one industry that produces greater value at lower prices. there are a lot of things we have to get right. i think like any organization, higher education has to look in a mirror and say what else can we be doing to be efficient and effective and wise stewards of taxpayers or donors generosity. and stewards of the lives that parents have put in our charge. >> we only have time for one more. in the back. >> gary. what is your attitude about the immigration battles that are going on right now? >> so immigration, it is

important that we remember that immigration has been the lifeblood of this nation. and it is important as well to remember that, as many have said, this is a nation of laws. here is what i would do. first, we have to secure the border. it is important for three reasons. one -- sorry. one, if we do not secure the border, the problem that we currently have getting worse as has been demonstrated -- keeps getting worse as has been demonstrated. second, do we doubt for a moment that our enemies have not figured out that our borders porous? -- borders are mo porous?

and third, we have to secure the border because we obviously can't do so. -- can do so. the most fundamental responsibility of government is to secure the borders and the homeland and when government does not do basic things, people lose faith in government. they begin to lose trust in government and that loss of faith and trust is corrosive. so we have to secure the border. we have to fix secondly, our legal immigration system. our legal immigration system has been broken for decades. it is an example of tinkering around the edges. we have been tinkering with the legal immigration system for the sake -- decades and we have 16 different visa programs. we let in the wrong people, many of the people, as many as half

that are here illegally have overstayed visas. we have to fix it. finally, we have to decide what to do with the people who are here illegally. i believe there should come a point in time where they can gain legal status and work. but i think there have to be consequences for breaking the law. for me, i would say those who came here illegally will not have the opportunity to become citizens. they may have legal status that they have foregone the right for citizenships -- but they have foregone the right for citizenship because there have to be consequences for those with broken the law and for those who are followed the law. -- have followed the law. in the end, temporary measures such as the president took right before christmas, temporary measures make the problem worse not better.

it is an issue worth leadership and citizenship is required, it is an example of a problem that has been festering for a long time and we are playing political football with it and have been to bring around the edges for a very long time -- have been tinkering around the edges for a very long time. thank you. [applause] >> on behalf of the new england council and city and some college, i want to thank you for coming today. thank you all for coming, thank you. [applause]

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>> max, kentucky senator rand paul offers remarks. after that, texas governor rick perry. then a discussion with former u.s. ambassador john bolton. >> on the next washington journal, catherine from the georgetown university for law talks about executive action on cyber security. and then brian brown and susan sommer discussed the state of same-sex marriage in the states and courts. "washington journal," live on c-span. >> here are some of our featured programs for this presidents' day weekend.

on c-span twos book tv, saturday morning at 9:00, nonfiction authors and books on the disappearance of michael rockefeller and women spies during the civil war. sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern a senior advisor for prosit advisor, david axelrod on his 40 years in politics. c-span3, the 100th anniversary of the release of the film "birth of a nation." will be a showing of the entire film and that a call-in program. sunday, on the presidency, george washington portraits. how artists captured the spirit of the first president and what we can learn through paintings. let us know what you think about

the programs you are watching. call us, e-mail us, or send us a tweet. joined the c-span conversation. -- click senator rand paul attended the american spectator magazine gala. the potential republican candidate defended the government shutdown and criticize former secretary of state hillary clinton for the benghazi attack. this is almost half an hour. >> i go to a lot of barbecues. i need to alter my jackets. they are getting tight. i was in kentucky, and the guy in front of me had a plate of barbecue. he loading up another plate of barbecue. i said, you are not going to live long eating like that. he said my