>> my name is freddie. i am from oregon. i walk with these independent voters. she said something i was thinking about. we talked about getting rid of the mess people can make a difference by voting. if people think they can make a difference simply by showing up twice the year and checking a box, it's not going to happen. all of the major reforms have passed because the people have gotten together and fought for it.

the gentle man, the second from the end spoke about the difference between president obama and candidate obama. i believe candidate obama was the right guy at the right time. the difference between the people shows you know matter who you put in place they are to some degree corruptible by the system in place. the problem with candidate obama and so many dichotomies like that is the people that got him there, they said, we have done it. it will be ok. we need to stick around. the squeaky wheel got the grease.

it happens to be the tea party. they were louder than us. that has affected the obama administration. my fear is a lot of what we have been talking about today is setting things up so people can show up two times a year, check a box, and hope it works. if these types of reforms pass it's going to be because of this because of people showing us getting together and making it happen, but if we pass reform and put the right people in place and don't stay on top of them, they will get corrupted by the system. there is no reform we can pass that can create a hands-free

democracy. that is what i would like to staay. we need to stay involved. >> i would simply say i think there is a difference between being constrained and being corrupted. i think what it shows is nothing happens in a vacuum. i think it was a step forward having elected obama and they elected him into a constraining process. i think what people are trying to do with this movement is to ensure the process doesn't

remain a vacuum, and you can open that up and change it throughout. >> i think it is so important. i forgot the exact words. i will paraphrase. the activity of the american people self organizing to take the democracy back is transformative in and of itself. we cannot go to sleep after that, but that might wake us up. >> i think i want to move on. i'm going to run this discussion until 4:30 so the folks at the mike are the speakers. we are going to close off after you. >> my name is sarah, and i am from kentucky.

i want to say first i caution alienating the tea party, the republican party, or the democrat party. as a republican, i am just as disenfranchised as you are living in a county where only democrats run. they are decided in the primary. i don't have a voice either. don't alienate people to that extent. it is nobody else's fault except the american people. they are the one who got us in the situation. i have a question about proposition 14. i did some research on it. wasn't it also one of the most expensive primaries in recent years, and are you planning on putting any methods in place to stop it from being whoever buys the most media wins?

that is what we got right now. california is not going to work the same in every state. each state has a different political coulter. what is the next step to ensure -- political culture. what is the next step? they are just going to click the button for the thing they heard the most. are you planning on making the next step? >> i think that's a good question. you cannot dissociate what is happening with what is happening in the media. when they report on not increasing voter turnout, they fail to report everywhere else in the country it has dropped off. when they talk about more money being involved they don't talk about more competitive elections and more votes matter. of course you have to spend more money because there are more voters at play.

they talk about it. the one thing fascinating about california's primary that most people have no idea -- we have the largest black caucus in the history of california. three black people got elected who did not have the democratic party endorsement. get to educated us that we have the largest black caucus. the media. >> arizona does not have an open primary, and we had the single largest election in terms of spending as well. why? money rules have changed the game in terms of money that is going to be spent. we are going to try to curb it. i will tell you the supreme court left that pretty clear. you are going to see a lot more money being spent. the question you ought to ask is would you rather allow the money to influence the system where

they can have a much greater influence moving your candidates towards an extreme or one where every voter gets to vote in every election? i feel much safer with the latter. >> the last point on voting and money in politics, it is used in about a dozen cities. minneapolis and oakland and portland, maine. one consistent thread is candidates spending the most part mayor are losing. they are running a more traditional campaign. the scrappy or candidates who ultimately win our ones who do a grassroots campaign. second or third choices you really need to win in a competitive race. you don't win with a 32nd tv ad. you have to -- 30 second tv ad.

there is no magic answer to money and politics, but there are ways to reduce its impact. >> my name is william. i am from brooklyn, new york. i have two quick questions. as we move forward with ballot initiatives and legislative initiatives, i'm wondering if there is a possibility of combining the runoff with proportional representation. the other question i have is senator chuck schumer from new york has come out in favor of open primaries of some sort. >> sure. >> i don't mind addressing that. >> i mentioned a need to simplify. i think we should have other

systems and we see if they work. our lawsuit we have an oral argument on tuesday. we explain different symptoms. what we need is a discussion about the electoral process itself and to go into the discussion knowing that none of us have the right answer or the best solution because very few solutions have been tried. how would we know? packs>> we have a system where everything goes to the november ballot. if it is a legislature, you have more than one person winning. rather than one seat in elected you have three. that is a statutory change.

that is an example of how they fit together. >> a question on the campaign the gentleman asked. senator schumer wrote an editorial punished during the summer which came out very vocally and strongly in support of the top to open primaries, and he never said another word. we decided let's remind him this is the position he took. there has been a campaign run in new york over the last several months where thousands of new yorkers are signing on to a letter to senator schumer calling on him not only to lead the effort to bring the primaries to new york, but in particular to have the democratic party make a decision to open its primaries in new york to all independent voters, something senator schumer is in

a position to do because the party could do that without having to go to the legislature or any such thing. how many signatures? over 7000 signatures. there you go. people can sign at the open primaries table. please do on the way out. >> the congressional lobbying of the new york delegation. >> there has been a series of meetings to push them to follow the lead of their senior democrat leader with regards to the top two issues. we continue to push the issue from the bottom up. >> the question is inspired by the acronym. committee for a unified independent party. my question is we try to define the future of the independent movement. i would like an opinion from

everybody. are we to think about it as defining a new third party that is going to have policy and platform and eventually rank and file and may be more power, and it would be easy to get a voice because of the money that would go with it, or might we retain that independent spirit and take as heterogeneous parts scattered through the country loosely affiliated through the country but retain the freethinking spirit? the question would be where do you see the future of the independent movement? >> i will back it up first. i am speaking just for myself, not for the movement. i think becoming a party is the

single worst thing we can do. [applause] i don't want any organization controlling my way of thinking. nor do i want the other candidates to be controlled by it. i want the voters to have a right to listen to me and make a decision as to who they would like to have. i would like all the voters to be involved in the process. i think there are things the independent movement can do. it can be helpful in changing the structure so more people can participate. i think it can help in education. i think having more candidates running is a good thing. they may not win but they can change the debate. somebody mentioned teddy roosevelt. teddy roosevelt lost the election, but he changed the outcome, much like rush limbaugh did when he ran against bill

clinton. having an independent candidate running for president that was talking about the importance of allowing all people the right to vote and that the right to vote comes from the voters maybe is the catalyst that begins to help move the change forward. helping independent candidates i think that is a good idea. endorsing independent candidates -- that is terrible. we are trying to get more people a choice and that is what we should be doing as an organization. [applause] >> one minor correction -- it was ross perot. [laughter] i think that we need to have a flowering of association.

this is a room of people that feels connected, or seem to be a lot of connection as independents. it is not like no one wants to be connected. it is ok to be connected to people. i think that to be rigidly boxed in democrat/republican that is it, that is not it. but if we can have a balance that allows association to be shown, to connections to be shown, that you can call it a party, but it is not rigid in their mighty in new one and a couple years -- that brings people in and makes people feel connected. i think there is a whole conversation to be had about how that can be put into our politics. watching states that i have talked to -- it starts, and you have a certain number of characters where it says you can say what you are connected. you can say your association. people are very creative about that.

whatever they feel connected to. if we move that direction and allow more choices on the ballot, where we have a right to choice system to accommodate that choice, i think we have a politics that brings more people in. >> go ahead. >> the committee for a unified independent party, which was the founding name of our organization, was created in 1984 in the context of the creation of the national reform party, which grew off the perot run. the reform party came together, basically as a left-center-right coalition of independence who were working to form an national party to leverage against the standard behavior of political parties. we had beautiful experimental period from 1995-1999, into

during that time we brought americans together from across the political spectrum and looked to bring other independent parties into a relationship with us, to build a broad, unified, independent party. one of the things that happened after about five years of existence was that the major parties came in in different ways. essentially wrecked to the reform party. one of the things we learned from that experience is that literally the form of organization that is a party gravitates in a particular direction that ends up deflating and depressing the very cause that brings people into independent politics in the first place. i am extremely sympathetic to paul's decision. after 2000, we made a shift away from party building to organizing independent voters

into associations that could leverage political power that could engage with the political establishment, including political parties, but without turning ourselves into a political party because we found that culturally and politically eight us to vulnerable to do that. we are creating new forms of expressing political power in this movement. i think there is a unity between form and substance. that is what we are searching for. that is why we have been cautious -- we don't want to create anything that is premature or pre-decided or prepackaged, because this is a movement with a new vision in new ideals and it has to have forms that can express it. [applause] >> i went echo -- i would echo. i don't think you can start with parties because i think the

whole idea is opening the process. in order to change the process you have to be able to bring people into the process, and i think that is the voting cache. i think it opens the process so that people who feel like they can't participate can participate, and as paul said, once you get one person taking one step and collectively taking that step, than the structures that will support that will begin to naturally develop. >> thank you for your question. yes? >> hi, i am a community college student and a student of dr. rafael mendez. [applause] i question is -- where does development fit in in your reform? without development, we do not have a democracy. if we do not fit development into democracy, we cannot change

the law. without changing the law, we cannot change the culture we live in. >> i think that something freddie said earlier speaks directly to that, that no reform leads to a hands-free democracy. that goes with the development issue. in my mind development is the key issue. credit part of political reform is can you get the party's grip off the process for a moment, for a second? can you create some space for development? that is not a guarantee. there are lots of departments for development. -- lots of environments for development. medicaid create new conversations. once you enact top two that is

when the challenge starts. not before. when the system is close down, the opportunities for development are nil. to open it up, and that is when we have to get to work and create the new conversations. i think it is a very crucial question. >> thank you. [applause] >> hi, i am rebecca feldman from new jersey. i want to thank you for doing this, for inviting me. i have learned so much today and i am so inspired and i have a practical question. i think political reform is popular with the american people. do have shown that with the surveys you have done. but to connect with people when they are listening, when they are going to the polls, for the 30 some odd states that do have the power of initiative and referendum better to pursue it in a presidential year? an off year?

do he know yet what that pinpoint is -- is it about turnout and getting the right audience? can you tell us something about timing? >> i think the landscape might be different, at first, we should all thank rebecca -- [applause] obviously it plays a huge role as it relates to -- we file in the primary, which is counterintuitive and against the advice of a clinical consultant. -- a political consultant. i don't think we would have passed it. but consultants were saying this is a partisan primary. independent voters don't turn out. but we had done the polling to know that, with a lower turnout all we had to do was communicate

with a lesser number of nonaffiliated voters and we could do it while the party was sleeping. institutional money wasn't going to come around until the general election. we said keep it on the ballot. we drove a campaign to voters that the parties don't talk to because it doesn't matter to them. the increased voter turnout by 450,000 that election, which was enough to margin a victory. [applause] >> it has been very state-by-state. we and arizona cap put hours on the primary election day. what we do know is that in all collection years the year when we elect our governor, turnout drops by 20%-20 5%. what we know is that it is disproportionately young people, independence, and minorities. we can statistically show that.

those are also groups we tend to do better worth in an open primary. but i don't know what exists in arizona for every state. i really do think that what chad provided and what his dad provided in california was the ability to be strategic, to look at it, to think about it, and to try to figure out a campaign strategy that would get them to a win number. at the end of the day, all that matters -- what do you win and what do you lose? at least the people we care about that are affected by these policies -- if we lose, we have done nothing. we may be moved the ball a little. but you have to think about whether you are ranked voting or talk to, whether you are on a. primary or general election. what are you going to do to lose it? it will be enough to create the change that we want. >> i would only add one thing to those very good remarks, which

is that study your yes vote and factor that in, because it may be different in different places. take some time to build support for it, like rushing can be seductive but it is usually dangerous. >> thank you all. >> yes? >> my name is katie byrne and i am a freshman at the university of north carolina-greensboro. in relation to progressive panic and the independent party being reestablishing humanity within a very politicized right, specifically with the clear and trans community, i would wonder how that is going to happen without a specific set of partisan things in regards to -- you can think of the lela alcorn act being put into place, but

only after she killed herself. how is this going to help me as a queer person? how many more queer people have to die before real change is going to happen? the democratic party is failing queer people beyond the very agreeable point of gay marriage. we are very much left out of a lot of political movement. >> i might just get a comment from arizona's standpoint. in arizona, one session ago, we had a bill that got out of our legislature that said you couldn't do anything to stop businesses from being able to discriminate against someone for being gay. i can just about promise you that it would have lost in front of the voters, it would not have been successful. why the disconnect?

because the majority of the legislature is elected by 4% of the people. they are captive to them -- they can't speak to the general electorate because they can't get reelected if they do. then when you combine that with the caucus, where they become afraid the moderate republicans become afraid of the more conservative ones, it becomes very harsh on minority groups. my answer is that the idea you have is good. they are things that are important. the things that will motivate the public like the martin luther king movement when it reached a broader audience. we are at the most risk dealing in an isolated room with a group of people who quite candidly don't put your interest as a priority. >> i would add one thing to that, which is that i think bringing the american people

together around democracy and around taking control of our political process and asserting ownership of our government, our country, our political culture the way we wanted to organize ourselves as a society means that we can't break out of a certain kind of atomization or identity-based politics, where every group is looking at a situation based simply on an identity that they have been given. it allows people to come together and learn from each other. my issue with respect to the questions that you are raising is that i want all of america to understand by virtue of knowing and being close to and working alongside with. i want all of america to understand that the queer

community is dealing with. right now we have the political situation that doesn't allow that to happen. unless there is a tragedy where headlines are made, that is the only time we can break through. we can't allow that to happen. we have to have a political system and a political process that allows people to be who they are and work together to make a better america for everyone. to me, one of the things that is most exciting -- and i have been a political activist since i was three -- [laughter] -- is that we can do that, now we can break out of issue orientation, identity politics and say, hey, we are going to come together as a country, we are going to come together as a people, we are going to make sure that justice is done for everyone, that everyone has the right to live the way they want to live, that everyone is protected to live the kind of life that they want to live, and

we are going to build this country in such a way so that everyone can fulfill their individual and creative potential. that is what this movement is about. [applause] that is why i think that is why i think the democracy issue is your issue, i really do. >> there are two more speakers who came to the podium, even though i was planning to close it -- i've going to let you speak but you will have literally 30 seconds. >> i love the discussion we are having particularly given the folks who were appear. it is a little heavy on the kind of electoral, tactical discussion -- should we do talk to or this or that. i would love if the panel could speak a little bit to how you understand the necessity of building a movement for independent political reform,

particularly in light of the title -- how we make a popular. i have been doing this a long time, we were involved in the first campaign in 2004. it was a very wonky discussion and we got our asses kicked. only through a lot of trial and error and hard work did it actually happen and once we passed it, only 25% of independents knew they could participate. our group went out and ordinary citizens that with all the registrars in order to change the way voter education materials worked. i would love it if you could speak a little bit to how you understand building a movement to make these tactics basically worthwhile. >> i might just give a quick comment. the nice thing about building this movement is that the other

side is doing a lot to help us. [laughter] almost daily. they do things inside their parties that are disenfranchising voters and pushing them to the outside. they are making them give up on the system and that is the danger. our danger is that the public tends to be giving up. they are starting to believe that maybe we can't make this thing better. we have to give them hope. what we have to do is make them believe, to believe that we can make things better. that is why i'm here and that is why most people in the room are here. [applause] >> this is not a direct answer, but one of the things that keeps going around in my head and in my life is that one of the lessons of being active and building together is that you

don't need permission to do something. people can just do something and then you can see what happens and then you can do something else. this program is a wonderful example. after a police murder in new york they came about and said, "what is something we can do that is really different?" if we can teach americans that they can do something new together, i think that goes a long way. [applause] >> let me take this opportunity right now to say that i think what i was saying earlier, that i really see this issue as a social justice issue, that we have a system that excludes

people from meaningfully participating in an election where they can make their own choice. i say if there is not going to be any justice, there can be no peace. [cheering and applause] >> two thumbnails -- we have seen voting pass, in a lot of them it was a very small number of people that said let's do this. sarasota florida -- it's three people who pushed it. they got on the ballot and 78% of the vote. there are different places. there is one state -- sarasota is an independent group that works at minneapolis-st. paul.

but they also created an organizational the ground, as they did it, and kept it. to have to defend your system, make it work, support candidates. not directly support them, but help them understand the system. that kind of movement building is harder, but it is sustainable in a way that it is likely to expand in that state. this is winnable stuff. i think you have to be smart but if you pick it a relatively small number of people can be the catalyst. they can be sustained into something lasting that will be bigger and there are a lot of people who can help do that. [applause] >> my name is neil. i'm a lawyer in new york. i'm also a candidate for president of independence. i have been fighting the democratic party and running fighting to get insurgent

candidates on the ballot. it is very, very difficult because in some courts there is such corruption. in quince county, the lawyers you are fighting against -- judges are on the bench. i had the real unfortunate situation in federal court fighting to get a candidate on the ballot. mr. wells, who is now a councilman, finding out after the case that the judge had been appointed by the other side. now i have a case in the united states court of appeals to try to outlaw the new york state board of elections. the new york state board of elections is the most corrupt institution i've ever seen. you are only allowed to have directors of the most prejudiced people -- you can only be on the board if you represent the republican or democratic party and they decide who was on the

ballot and who is not on very technical cases. how could you have -- the biggest party group is independent, and they have no representation on the situation. it is a total violation of one man one vote. i really applaud your movement and your efforts, but i do think that you can't get legislation passed unless you have candidates, unless you have a structure. this noble organization -- you don't have to be part of that structure. you made a decision, you have the experience. but there also is a need for independent parties where a person can get legislation passed and hope to change the situation, and that is what i am running on. i want to thank you for the opportunity -- one last comment. i read from a year last year. i ran for mayor and here im, the

reverend who wrote two books. i am a former assistant da and a public school teacher and got excluded in the debate. how can you have such terrible corruption in the system and allow it to go on? thank you very much. [applause] >> my name is kevin johnson. i decided i was independent in 1992. a lot of the things ross perot were saying so many people didn't. [laughter] a large -- if we can organize a big margin and a whole lot of people taking advantage of the warm weather, at least 100,000 and the other thing is -- how many people are familiar with the coast-to-coast am radio show? that is a good one for us to go on because you can lay it all out on the line.

jesse ventura has been on their. that has 10 million loyal listeners that are all smart people. they talk about a lot of behind-the-scenes things like this. it is a perfect show. can we help jackie get on the coast-to-coast a.m.? maybe we can work on that. [applause] >> all right. let's get our panelists another round of applause. [cheering and applause] thank you so much. i'm going to close us out now. thank you so much for being here and for participating in these conversations. i think some of what we have pursued and opened up and talked about today are really some of the most important discussions

that are going on in the country today. we want to continue them outside the theater. i will come out there and i want to say hello to everyone. let's keep the conversation going, keep our movement building keep your leadership going and growing. thank you so very much for being here tonight. [applause] >> the foreign affairs minister is that the atlantic council wednesday for a discussion on combating violent extremism. you can see it live starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span2. also a 10:00, a conversation with customs and border protection's commissioner. he will discuss his mission and future initiatives for combating terrorism, transnational crime border security, and trade issues. on july fund c-span3. -- watch it live on c-span3.

each deck this week at 9:00 p.m. eastern, conversations with a few new members of congress. >> when you raise your hand and took the oath of office, what were your mom and dad thinking? >> i knew my mom would be crying and my dad was. proud my dad showed up and he usually walks with a cane. he showed up and he didn't have his cane. i said, dad, do i need to send someone to your hotel? he straightens up and says, i am in the capital, i don't need a cane. he walked about his cane for the entire day. i know they were super proud. >> five newest members of congress talk about their careers and personal lives and share insight about how things work on capitol hill. join us for all their conversations each night at 9:00 eastern on seas in -- on c-span. >> an article in "the washington

post" notes that senator paul was raising $24 per second during his speech. it was a message that may have seemed cryptic. it read, using a photo of senator paul and the freshly minted logo for his 2016 campaign "money bomb." the idea of money bombs is usually associated with the elder. they made a splash by encouraging a swarm of donations within a 24-hour. you can see the results of the current fundraiser on senator paul's website. >> kentucky senator rand paul

officially announced his candidacy for president tuesday in louisville. senator paul joins texas senator ted cruz is the second candidate officially in the race. this is 35 minutes. [applause] kelly: thank you so much. it's great to be here in louisville today surrounded by silly people who are passionate about making our country stronger, freer, and more prosperous. together, we share a vision for america, a vision of a country unshackled by crushing debt, recommitted to our founding principles, and fueled by freedom and prosperity. to create endless opportunities for americans from every single walk of life. many of you here today have been helping us give voice to these ideas from the very beginning. so first, i just want to express that rand and i are deeply grateful for your support,

prayers, friendship and encouragement. it is hard to believe it has been six years since april of 2009, when coach rand paul left our youngest son's little league game to go give what he said was going to be a short message to a small group of people and downtown bowling green. [laughter] when he arrived, there were 700 sign waving tea partiers filling the park in bowling green. [applause] rand told me there was such energy and electricity in the air that night that he sensed a real change in the mood of the country and a desire for real reform. like the majority of americans he was frustrated with washington and soon started talking to me about making a run for the u.s. senate.

i will be honest, i was not exactly thrilled. [laughter] i think my first words were how can you do this to me? [laughter] but rand is very persuasive. he tried to convince me that his first line of attack was you know everyone says i have a less than 10% chance of winning the primary. [laughter] but i have heard him speak that night in fountain square park and i knew with a set and certainty and clarity that sometimes you have in life, i just knew. i looked him in the eye and said if you do this, you are going to win, i know it. [applause] rand's incredible work effort shows in how he sponsored hundreds of bills in the senate.

i think there's no doubt he's making a difference. [applause] many of his bills are bipartisan, ranging from reforms in the criminal justice system to the creation of economic freedom zones for depressed areas of our state and across the country. rand is truly a different kind of legislator, with his urgent descriptions like a one-man think tank from "politico." his 13 hour stand for the bill of rights lit spark across this country, uniting people of all ages and across the entire political spectrum. over the course of a filibuster, the outpouring of support through social media was extraordinary. band with rand was trending nationally and was reported that over one million tweets were said doubt in support of rand. [applause]

i told our kids this is what happens when one person is bold enough to take a stand. [applause] i remember how exciting it was for our family as we watched it all unfold on tv that night. our kids had our phones out reading tweets from people all over the country and even around the world. reactions that were so spontaneous and powerful that it was something we will truly never forget. i was incredibly proud of rand that night, but i always have been. this year, we will celebrate 25 years of marriage. [applause] rand has amazing energy and optimism and life with him is always filled with old possibility.

as i told him once, you are brave and you inspire that in others. [applause] so please join me in welcoming my husband and your awesome u.s. senator, rand paul. [cheers and applause]

[chanting "president paul"] senator paul: i have a message. a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. we have come to take our country back. [cheers and applause] we have come to take our country back from the special interest that use washington as their personal piggy bank. the special interests that are more concerned with their personal welfare than the general welfare. the washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and

invades every new again cranny of our lives must be stopped. [applause] less than five years ago, i stood just down the road in my hometown of bowling green and said those same words. i wasn't supposed to win. no one thought i would. some people asked me, then why are you running? the answer is the same now as it was then -- i have a vision for america. i want to be part of a return to prosperity, a true economic boon that lists all americans, a return to a government restrained by the constitution. [applause] a return to privacy,

opportunity, liberty, too often, when republicans have one, we have squandered our victory by becoming part of the washington machine. that is not who i am. [applause] that is not why i ran for office a few times is to years ago. the truth is, i love my life as a small-town doctor. every day i woke up and felt lucky to do the things i love. more importantly, i was blessed to be able to do things that made a difference in people's lives. what i could not have done it without the help of my parents who are here today. [applause] with my parents help, i was able to make it through long years of medical training to become a nice urgent.

for me, there's nothing that compares with helping someone see better. last summer, i was privileged to travel to guatemala on a medical mission trip. we operated on more than 200 people who were blind or nearly blind from cataracts. i was grateful to be able to put my scrubs back on and. into the ocular's and focus on the task at hand to take a surgical approach to fix the problem. one day, a man arrived until told me i had operated on his wife before. she begged him to get on the bus, travel the winding roads and come back to our surgery center. he too was nearly blind from hardin cataracts. the next day, his wife sat next to me. as i unveiled the patch from his eye, it was a powerful moment to see them looking at each other clearly for the first time in years.

as i saw the joy in their eyes i thought this is why i became a doctor. i also remembered my grandmother who inspired me to become a doctor. we would scan her collection looking for wheat pennies, but as her vision failed, i became her eyes to inspect the mint marks on the weather worn coins. i went with my grandmother to the ophthalmologist as she received a cornea transplant and receive the news that macular degeneration had done harm to her eyes. my hope my grandmother could see again made me want to become an eye surgeon and make a difference in peoples lives. i have been fortunate. i've been able to enjoy the american dream. i worry that opportunity is slipping away for our sons and daughters. i think what kind of america

will our grandchildren see? it seems to me both parties and the entire political system are to blame. [applause] big government and that doubled under a republican administration. it is now tripling under barack obama's watch. president obama is on course to add more debt than all the previous presidents combined. we borrow a million dollars a minute. this vast accumulation of debt threatens not just our economy but our security. we can wake up now and do the right thing. quit spending money we don't have. [applause]

this message of liberty is for all americans. americans from all walks of life. this is for all americans, whether you wear a suit, uniform or overalls. whether you are white, black rich or poor. in order to restore america, one thing is for certain, we cannot and must not dilute our message or give up on our principles. [applause] if we nominate a candidate who is simply democrat like, what is the point? why bother? we need to boldly proclaim our vision for america.

we need to go boldly forth under the banner of liberty that clutch is constitution in one hand and the bill of rights in the other. [applause] washington is horribly broken. i fear it cannot be fixed from within. we the people must rise up and demand action. [applause] congress will never balance the budget unless you force them to do so. congress has an abysmal record with balancing anything. our only recourse is to force congress to balance the budget with a constitutional amendment. [applause]

i have been to washington, and let me tell you, there is no monopoly on knowledge there. [laughter] i ran for office because we have to many career politicians. i believe it now more than ever. we limit the president to two terms. it's about time we limit terms of congress. [applause] i want to reform washington. i want common sense rules that will break the logjam. that is why i introduced a read the bill act. the bills are 1000 pages long,

and no one reads them. they are often put on our desk with only a few hours before a vote, so i propose something truly extraordinary. let's read the bills. [applause] from the time i was a very young boy i was taught to love and appreciate america. love of liberty pulses in my veins. not because we are beautiful mountains or white sand beaches, although we do, and not because of our abundance of resources but our great nation was founded on the extraordinary notion that government should be restrained and freedom should be maximized. [applause] america, to me, is that beacon.

we are unique among nations that our country stands for freedom. freedom nurtured our country from a rebellious group of colonies into the world's greatest nation. when tierney threatened the world america led the nation to read the world of not these and fascist regimes. we start decade after decade against communism. the engine of capitalism finally winning out against this lettering incompetent engine of socialism. america and freedom are so intertwined that people are dying to come here. the freedom we fostered in america has unleashed genius and advancement like never before.

yet, our great nation still needs new ideas and new answers to old problems. from an early age i worked. i taught swimming lessons, i mowed lawns, i put roofs on houses, i painted houses. i never saw work as punishment. it always gave me a sense of who i am. [applause] self-esteem cannot be given, it must be earned. [applause] work is not punishment, work is the reward. [applause] two of my sons work minimum wage jobs while they go to college. i am proud of them is a see them realize the value of hard work. i can see their self-esteem grow as a cash their paychecks. i have a vision for america where everyone who wants to work will have a job.

[applause] many americans are being left behind. the reward of work seems beyond their grasp. under the watch of both parties, the poor seem to get poorer and the rich get richer. trillion dollar government stimulus package has only widened the income gap. politically connected cronies get taxpayer dollars by the hundreds of millions and poor families across america continue to suffer. i have a different vision, an ambitious vision, a vision that will offer opportunity to all americans, especially those who have been left behind. my plan includes economic freedom zones. to allow impoverished zones like detroit and west louisville, eastern kentucky to prosper by leaving more money in the pockets of people who live

there. [applause] can you imagine what a billion dollar stimulus could do for detroit or appalachia? i am convinced most americans want to work. i want to free up the great engine of american prosperity. i want to see millions of americans back at work. in my vision of america, we will bring back manufacturing jobs that pay well. how? we will dramatically lower the taxes on american companies that wish to bring their profits home. [applause] more than $2 trillion in american profit currently sits overseas.

in my vision for america, new highways and bridges will be built across the country, not by raising your taxes that by lowering the tax to bring the american profits home. [applause] even in this polarized congress, we have a chance of passing this. i say let's bring 2 trillion dollars home to america, let's bring it home now. [applause] liberal policies have failed our inner cities. let's just get the facts straight. they have failed our inner cities. our schools are not equal, and the poverty gap continues to widen. martin luther king spoke of two americas. he spoke of them is to americas that existed side-by-side.

in one in america, people experience the opportunity of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and the other america, people experienced a daily ugliness. that leaves only the fatigue of despair. although i was born into the america that experiences and believes an opportunity, my trips to new york, chicago have revealed what i call an undercurrent of unease. it is time for a new way, a way predicated on justice, opportunity and freedom. [applause] those of us who have enjoyed the american dream, must break down the wall that separates us from the other america. i want all of our children to

have the same opportunity that i had. we need to stop limiting kids in poor neighborhoods to failing public schools and offer them school choice. [applause] it will not happen unless we realize we cannot borrow our way to prosperity. currently some $3 trillion comes into the u.s. treasury. couldn't the country just survive on $3 trillion? i propose we do something extraordinary. let's just spend a what comes in. [applause] in my vision for america freedom and prosperity at home can only be achieved if we defend against enemies dead set on attacking us. [applause]

without question we must defend ourselves and american interests from our enemies. until we name the enemy, we cannot win the war. [applause] the enemy is radical islam. you cannot get around it. [applause] not only will i name the enemy i will do whatever it takes to defend america from the haters of mankind. [applause] we need a national defense robust enough to defend against all attack, modern enough to deter all enemies and nimble

enough to defend our vital interests. but we also need of foreign policies that protect american interests and encourages stability, not chaos. [applause] at home, conservatives understand government is the problem, not the solution. conservatives should not succumb to the notion that a government inept at home will somehow succeed in building nations abroad. [applause] i envision an america with the national defense unparalleled, undefeatable, and unencumbered with overseas nationbuilding. [applause]

i envision a national defense that promotes as reagan put it peace through strength. i believe in applying reagan's approach to foreign policy to the iran issue, successful negotiations and untrustworthy adversary only achieved through a position of strength. we brought you ran to the table through sanctions i voted for. now we must stay strong. that is why i have cosponsored legislation that ensures any deal between the u.s. and iran must be approved by congress. [applause] not only is that good policy, it is the law. it concerns me the iranians have

a different interpretation of the agreement. they are putting out statements that save the complete opposite of what we are saying. it concerns me we may attempt or the president may attempt to unilaterally or prematurely halt sanctions. i will oppose any deal that does not end iran's nuclear ambitions and have strong unification measures. [applause] i will insist the final version be brought before congress. the difference between president obama and myself, he seems to think you can negotiate from a position of weakness, yet everyone needs to realize negotiations are not inherently bad. the trust but verify is required

and any negotiation, but the goal always should be and always is peace, not war. [applause] we must realize we do not project strength by borrowing money from china to send to pakistan. [applause] let's quit building bridges in foreign countries and use the money to build bridges here at home. [applause] it angers me to see mobs burning our flags and chanting death to america in countries that receive millions of dollars in our foreign aid. [applause]

i say not one penny more to these haters of america. [applause] to defend our country, we do need to gather intelligence on the enemy. but when the intelligence director is not punished for lying under oath, how are we to trust our government agencies? [applause] more endless searches of american phones and computer searches are un-american and a threat to your civil liberties. i say your phone records are

yours. i say the phone records of law-abiding distance are none of their damn business. [applause] is this where we light up the phones? [laughter] the president great his vast dragnet by executive order. as president on day one, i will immediately end this unconstitutional surveillance. [applause] i believe we can have liberty and security, and i will not compromise your liberty for a false sense of security. not now, not ever. [applause]

we must defend ourselves, but we must never give up who we are as a people. we must never diminish the bill of rights as we fight the long war against evil. we must believe in the founding documents. we must protect economic and personal liberty again. america has much greatness left in her. we are still exceptional and a beacon for the world. we will thrive when we believe in ourselves again. i see an america strong enough to serve foreign aggression, yet wise enough to avoid unnecessary intervention. [applause] i see an america where criminal justice is applied equally, and any law that disproportionally incarcerates people of color is repealed. [applause]

i see an america with a restrained irs that cannot target, cannot harass american citizens for their political or religious beliefs. [applause] i see our big cities once again shining with creativity and ingenuity, with american companies offering american jobs. with your help, this message will ring from coast to coast. a message of liberty, justice, and personal responsibility. today begins the journey to take america back. [applause]

to rescue of the great country now adrift, join me as together we seek a new vision for america. today i announce with god's help, with the help of liberty lovers everywhere, that i am putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the united states. [cheers and applause] [chanting " president paul"]

[cheers and applause] ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] ♪

please stick around over the lights on the right-hand side. >> senator paul begins a four day tour. states known to hold the earliest primaries and caucuses. texas entered ted cruz who announced last month released a message welcoming center paul to the race. it read in part --

debbie wasserman schultz responded as well saying "rand paul says he wants to enlace the american dream but the only thing a paul presidency unleashes is a massive move backwards to narrowminded extremism." >> this sunday, senior editor for the weekly standard andrew ferguson on his writing career, the gop presidential candidates for 2016, and what voters are looking for in a candidate. >> they want someone who looks like he stood up for them. i am amazed now to -- the degree to which primary voters on both

sides are motivated by resentment. the sense of being put upon. and those people really do not understand us. here is a guy who is going to stick it to them and that help in -- happens on both sides. hillary clinton will get her own version of that kind of thing. i do not think that was actually true 30 years ago. resentment has always been part of politics, obviously. the degree to which it is almost exclusively the motivating factor in truly committed republicans and democrats. >> sunday at 8 p.m. >> all this week while congress is on break, c-span brings you interviews with freshman of the 114th congress. wednesday, we sit down with texas republican will hurd, the

first african american to represent the state since reconstruction and has served abroad with the cia. >> i was 22 years old and i was driving and washington, d.c. and i stopped at a gas station. i remember thinking i wonder if i am going to know anything that is going on there. after we go through our initial orientation, i was the desk officer for yemen. i was the guy back at headquarters, i am supporting the men and women in our station which is the cia headquarters in sanaa, yemen. one of the biggest challenges while i was there was fighting the bureaucracy. when i was in afghanistan i

managed all undercover operations and i felt like there was some rules and regulations that we were having to use to do our jobs that were preventing us from protecting ourselves and doing the job that we were trained to do. fighting the bureaucracy, back in langley was an incredible challenge and in the end, we won because we knew -- i had the right experience and background and enough support to get that done. it was a great experience. that is what i am doing here. most of my responsibility as a representative is to fight the bureaucracy for those folks who need the bureaucracy fought. it is that simple. >> c-span's profiles continue wednesday with texas republican will hurd at 9 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> c-span profiles of

congressional freshman continues tonight with arizona to regret urban gallego. the son of immigrants from latin america, congressman i go earned a scholarship to harvard but dropped out to join the marines and fight in iraq. he talks about his experiences his family, and his new life in washington. this is a little over 20 minutes. >> a couple months now as a freshman representative. what is it like? commerce men -- congressman gallego: every day is a new challenge. every day i miss home a little more. i am glad i am here so i am doing good work for my district and i hope to be here for a long time. host: how did someone born in chicago and up in arizona? congressman gallego: i was in

new mexico with my wife, i was working on the 2004 elections. while there i got activated and sent to iraq. my wife had established yourself and leaving the marines, once you're done, you're done. i did not have a job or place to live so arizona was a very good option at that point. host: your family originally from mexico. congressman gallego: my mom and dad came in the late 70's. host: why washington -- chicago? congressman gallego: it was a really good draw. some of the things, and had the

largest latino population in the country. host: raised by a single mom. your dad went -- left when? congressman gallego: i looked up to him. he was a construction worker. he owned a farm in mexico and i worked on the farm. i looked up to him as a father figure. he was my father figure. when everything went south, he also went. i do not think he reacted well to it and his conch -- company shut that down. that is why it hurt so much. it abandoned to i thought he was. host: can i ask what happened? congressman gallego: he had a construction company that was in -- employing a lot of people and he did not pay his taxes and

everything apart and he started selling drugs. and or somebody who i thought was a good, moral compass ended up not being that. host: how did your mom keep it together? congressman gallego: i could not tell you to this day. she has done an amazing job. it was tough and i remember some hard times. she is an amazing woman. today is her birthday. happy birthday to you. i will not say how old she is sure she will not get mad. host: if you could talk to your dad what would you say? >> i have moved on. i took his spot. i had to become a father figure for my sisters at a young age i have closed that chapter and i am here to move on and hopefully i want to be a good father, too.

host: you went on to harvard. how did this come about because it is not a cheap school. congressman gallego: i realized -- we were pretty poor, and in order for me to go to college i was going to have to get some scholarships and i realized the only where we do that is to make sure i had the best rates possible and scored the best in my tests. my freshman year i committed myself that it was going to apply to harvard. if i got myself ready for that matter where i went, i would get a scholarships i could go to college. i started taking classes my freshman year of high school. i started reading as much as i can about how to apply to college and so i applied harvard. i did a lot of research to prepare myself to make myself qualified. so i did that and i ended up doing very well in my tests past a lot of ap exams and got

in and they gave me nearly a full ride and i got into a lot of the schools of the same thing. my goal was accomplished to get there and not to be a burden on my family. host: during the process, what advice did your mom give you? congressman gallego: it was more emotional support than anything else. my mom is a hard-working person but she did not apply to college. she did, it was a community college. it was difficult for her to understand the keyboard. now she has it down pat from what i was the first one, it was more difficult. she gave me a lot of emotional support, believing i could do it and making me stay focused. i am working and also studying, she made me realize it is important to focus, making sure i so had time for my sisters and

my mom and realizing that is what really matters in life. host: you are in high school and you get the letter accepted to harvard, nearly a full scholarship. what was your reaction? congressman gallego: i was really shocked. i was working that day at a hot dog stand and i knew what time the mail came, and my boss let me go, who actually came to my swearing-in. he let me go home to looks are the mail and i went, i saw the letter a big packet. i called my mom, she was still a work area to started crying -- still at work. she started crying. i went back to work. my boss was very proud of me. i went back to work that day. it was -- having a more after my

step when i was flipping those burgers that day. host: how did your mom support you? congressman gallego: how do you mean? host: you said she had many jobs. congressman gallego: she was a secretary at a law firm. she supported me emotionally. she worked some very hard jobs as a legal secretary and an administrative secretary. those are great experiences for me going -- growing up and going to work with her in seeing professional people walking around, wearing suits and for me, it was a good example because growing up, the idea of work was about whether you can accomplish some kind of construction goal. everyone in my family was our vendors and for some reason that -- i thought i was supposed to be a carpenter or construction worker. it is good, honorable work and it pays well but i did not know

there were these other options. so being exposed to other professions was really important. my mom really taught me about the dignity of work, we did not make much, but she did teach me that we should be proud that we are working on his jobs. she brought home enough pay. we never were lacking for food create our clothing was not fancy, but we always left the house looking like a million bucks even though our clothing was not a million bucks because what mattered is how we carry ourselves, not necessarily have much we had in the bank account. host: do you remember the name of the hot dog stand you work at? congressman gallego: susie's. it is still there. host: what did that teach you about customer service and do you apply that to politics? congressman gallego: a lot of what i was doing was in the back

because i was flipping the burgers in making the hot dogs. what it did teach me was because of the interactions you had every day. people come in, it is all walks of life and a lot of them were having bad days. they were coming from work or going to work. what it taught me as i need to treat everyone the same con no matter what. even if you are being mean that day, even if you're having a great day or bad day. i am going to treat you professionally. i was going to make the best hotdogs or sandwich or the best hamburger. but a lot of the other jobs i have had have always taught me if you treat people professionally you will be treated the same in return and even if you are not, you're still better off being professional about it. host: what were the burgers in what was the most popular item on the hotdogs? congressman gallego: the hotdogs were more popular.

they were chicago style. a lot of people liked peppers on those hot dogs. most people will not put that on but it was pretty good. host: you are at harvard in then you with true to join the marine corps. why? congressman gallego: i was not getting along. it was not harvard's fault. the culture was drastically different for me from what i came from. it is a very rich school. some great students there and some middle-class students and they got along very well. but i had a very tough adjustment. a lot of things i look at gone, -- i look back on. i thought that was what i was supposed to do. i ways wanted to join the marine corps. i always wanted to serve my country. in the back of my mind i was going to join the marine corps first and i -- and then college. it was this track that would keep me somewhere in putting off my goal which was joining the

marines. i found myself getting unhappy and not having good grades. it was time for me to do what i wanted to do. i join the marines reserves. you return to school after boot camp and that is what i did. host: watch some rain, always a marine. congressman gallego: absolutely. host: what do you remember about your time as a marine? congressman gallego: the friends i mean, i got to serve with some of the -- i made, i got to serve with some of the -- sorry. some of the very best. and i do not think i will be surrounded with people that great again. host: what did they teach you? congressman gallego: they taught me about humility. they taught me about being there for each other. the marines taught me about

discipline and organization, but that was the marine corps. the marines i served with taught me about what it truly means to care about another human being you are not related to. what you are willing to do to keep them alive. host: let me follow up if i could. it was that love, that sacrifice you had seen over the years. can you explain? congressman gallego: i am sorry. host: about the loss you witnessed in the sacrifices. congressman gallego: i lost my best friend and i lost a lot of platoon members. we lost a lot of good men in combat. for reasons i think were incorrect. we did not have the proper armor in our vehicles and we were also in an area that should have had

more manpower than what we had but to the state, the fact that i lost such close friends still haunts me. host: you and others debate military spending and what the military has or needs. how do you apply your experiences to the debate here? congressman gallego: i look at the budget from the perspective of the ground pounder, the infantrymen. every operation whether it into begins will involve the infantry. and when it comes to the budget i always look at it, how is this going to affect that one infantrymen. because everyone is -- everything is supportive of that. i am going to look at what does the infantry guy need because that is where most likely though ordinance will be dropped. where it will be used.

and lastly, i think bringing my perspective is important that we fulfill our commitments to each of our personnel that retire. i have heard some talk of trying to change how we get our benefits and the formula is to retirees and their dependents and i know for fact that as a member of -- as a veteran, a member of the military there is nothing more disheartening than to join the military were you are guaranteed certain inks and then told that is not the case. and we have to change it because of budget priorities. it is not a priority how fast to get us into a war zone. and how much they're willing to spend on the war. what you promise somebody is what they should beginning and they should not be taking any shortcuts. host: you're dealing with a lot of information. how do you filter through all of the data, the letters the

e-mails, the reports, the bills that you have to read? congressman gallego: i do not really sleep much, it has not been my nature. i do being motivated and stimulated, i actually enjoy getting a lot of information. and most of the time, it is surface but when i need to go deeper, then i will start asking questions. so for me, actually enjoy it. it is enjoyable to hear from my constituents and even when something gets into the weeds, i like the challenge. a lot of it is more about the speed. i love my stuff but sometimes they cannot keep up with me and i feel bad because they are human and i am human, too, but i just do it. i guess i do not think about it because it is part of the job and it is enjoyable. host: is this job what you expected so far? congressman gallego: to some

degree, yes. i come from arizona. you understand what it means to be the minority. there is other aspects of it that i really enjoy. right now, we are working on the peace process be helpful to the u.s. government on that. being the first colombian-american to be elected to congress. it is a good chance to get involved. listening in and trying to figure out what to do with the defense budget. getting to that has been enjoyable but very difficult and then being involved in all the other small projects. even while we have a very [inaudible] congress we have found yourselves to be -- find different ways to be productive for the district and the state as a whole. host: how did you meet your

wife? congressman gallego: she bought me an estate auction. host: you will have to explain. congressman gallego: she was walking back from some late-night class and she saw her girlfriend on the streets walking to some event, and they had not seen each other in forever, so her friend invited her to come to this event and it was a date auction that was being done by a sorority and fraternity's at harvard. to benefit the 9/11 fund. this is after september 11, 2001. i happened to be auctioned off that night. and this woman was a mutual friend of ours. we had never met. so i started getting auctioned off. her good friend and my good friend, she urged kate to bid on me. it was going well and i was wondering who this beautiful

woman was who was bidding on me. and i started getting bidded up more. as the bidding was going up, she stopped and a friend was about to win me. i asked the auctioneer to ask kate one more time because i wanted to see who this lovely woman was. and he did and kate said she had run out of money. if she bids for me one more time i will pay half and she agreed. that is how we met. we ended up going out on our first date a week later and ever since, it has been pretty good. host: how much do they raise? congressman gallego: $44 which was the second-most for that day. one guy raised more money that day. host: was your mom here when you took the oath of office? congressman gallego: absolutely. host: what was that like for

her? congressman gallego: it was a great feeling. there is no need to -- there is not anything else we can do to reiterate how good of a job she has done. her proudest moment was seeing all four of her kids graduated from college. and that is very hard to do nowadays and the fact that she did it, she did it with -- by herself, really shows her strength, what a great mother she is. but obviously, i think these kinds of things make her very happy because she knows i am fulfilling either a goal or accomplish in a step. i have a sister know who is in medical school. she -- that will trump this. one of my sisters becomes a doctor she will be the favorite of the family. i think my mom was very proud mostly for me but i think she needs to know she did a great

job. host: when you took the oath of office, what were you thinking? congressman gallego: i had three members from my platoon hold the bible. i am here, and it is my charge to do my best for my country and my district, and i was thinking about the weight of that pressure and that i needed to fulfill a think what people wanted me to do was come here and be a strong advocate for everyday people, for veterans, and not shy away from the fight. host: how do you know whether you have achieved that? what is your benchmark? congressman gallego: based on how many facebook posts i get. just kidding. a lot of times, if i feel i put it on the table i push where i can push, and even if i did fail

i gave it my best and that is an internal gut check that i have all the time. that is the way i do it. sometimes it is looking in the mirror and saying, did i do what i -- other people would be proud of and if i can answer yes or no to that and hopefully i can answer it honestly. host: he said being a husband and a son and a father someday. congressman gallego: yes. not yet. hopefully as but not yet. host: what would you tell your kids about your career so far? congressman gallego: i would tell them that i am blessed that i was born in this country and that it has given me this opportunity. opportunities given you have to go the other 50%. just because i made it does not mean i forget every thing else

that got me here and the people and the people who did not make it and how i can be of service to that and to their families. especially someone like me who has served in the military, i especially only add to our veterans to stay here and do my job to help them and help their families. host: thank you very much for your time. congressman gallego: thank you. thank you so much. >> all this week while congress is on break, c-span gives you interviews with freshman of the 114th congress. wednesday we sit down with texas republican will herd. he is the first african-american republican to represent the state since reconstruction and has served abroad with the cia. >> i was 22 euros -- years old, i am driving and i stopped at a

gas station, there was a tv on and the uss cole had just own up, -- blown up by al qaeda. i remember thinking, i wonder if i am going to know anything that is going on there. and after we go through our initial orientation, i was the desk officer for yemen. i was the guy back at headquarters. i am supporting the men and women in our station, which is the cia headquarters in sonoma yemen -- sanaa yemen. one of the biggest challenges was fighting the bureaucracy. when i was in afghanistan i managed all undercover operations and i felt like there was some rules and regulations that we were having to use to do our jobs that were preventing us from protecting ourselves and doing the job that we were trained to do. and so fighting the bureaucracy and kabul and within the cia

fighting the bureaucracy back in langley was an incredible challenge and in the end, we won. because we knew, we had the right experience and background to get that done. it was a great experience because that is what i am doing here. most of my responsibility as a representative from this area is to fight the bureaucracy for those folks who need the bureaucracy pot. it is that simple. >> c-span's profiles of the freshman of the 114th congress continue wednesday with texas republican will heard at 9 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> coming up, robert nichols berg talks about his years documenting the modern history of afghanistan and photos. followed by the national conference of independents.

president obama makes remarks at the annual easter prayer breakfast. >> this sunday, senior editor for the weekly standard andrew ferguson on his writing career the gop presidential candidate for 2016, and what voters are looking for in a candidate. andrew: they want someone who looks like he stands up for them. the degree to which primary voters on both sides are motivated by resentment. the sense of being put upon. those people really do not understand us. and here is a guy that does understand that he is going to stick it to them and that happens on both sides. hillary clinton will get her own version of that kind of thing. and i do not think that was actually true 30 years ago.

resentment has always been paul -- part of politics, obviously but the degree to which it is a must the motivating factor in truly committed republicans and democrats. >> sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on "q&a." award-winning photojournalist robert nichols berg document a 25 years in afghanistan for "time magazine" and "the new york times." he spoke in march about his career as told through "afghanistan: the distant war." this is just over an hour. >> am going to -- i am going to give you a brief introduction on how i got to south asia and begin a rather rapid image presentation from 1988 going

through 2013. in 1987, i moved from bangkok -- thailand when an opportunity opened up to cover south asia. having originally started -- is starting my professional career with time in central america and never thought it would end up 10 years later in the massive landmass of south asia. if you look at the map particularly a national geographic map, it is quite huge. india is -- as a continent is incredible, but when i landed it was the end of the cold war and one thing that is important for this evening and for you to understand rather -- the rather cockaded subject of afghanistan is the context of that time. it was the end of the cold war. the u.s. and russia were still tank to tank in europe. we had tanked counts back then if you remember. central asia started to take

apart from the soviet union and the russians were willing to withdraw which is something very difficult for a nation are -- a nation to encounter and deal with. moving there india was asleep at the time as a story for journalists. i was dumped into pakistan to follow the trail up to afghanistan. prior to my coming, most of my colleagues have already worked by going over land through pakistan with backpacks and disappearing. this was great in many respects but for me, working for a wiggly, i had to deliver film, and it had to go from kabul to pakistan to europe to new york within 24 hours, go to the lab. film is something quite foreign today. it is manually driven.

the challenge was more logistic as well as editorial. so, the beginning -- i am going to book end this conversation tonight with the withdrawal of the soviet army. better for us tonight to call them the russians with the 2013 withdrawal of the americans. that way, we can compress everything in a similar topic. here you have an afghan soldier handing a flag of friendship to the departing russians. another element here i had to quickly deal with was the ambiguity. this is essential for anybody working in the region, whether it is africa, southeast asia china, europe. you have to embrace ambiguity. keep in mind, the russians at

this point had killed one million afghans. they had also come and they do it quite violently, similar to what you see in ukraine today with artillery, execution style. context is very important. what is this flag of friendship all about? in 1989, the cia and pakistan's intelligence agency, isi decided that it was time after the soviets had withdrawn to establish a foothold inside afghanistan. any insurgency needs to establish a full told and this is the battle. they decided on the capital. this is the battle outside of the airstrip. this is the ragtag army. the major ethnic group in afghanistan.

you can see the ragtag quality of this, in particular, this captured russian. yet obviously gotten -- this is a three-hour drive from the pakistan border. he been mined in this image -- and i kind of knew it -- bin laden in particular was about two miles away. they were also at the airport which was the front line. the battle killed 8000. it was a slap in the face to pakistan as well as the cia. that would not stop them though. this is what carpet bombing looks like. these are refugees fleeing the same battle along the same road. a series of explosions along the line. they were using this highway as a marker. luckily, i had my feet in that

great mountain stream and i was caught unaware. that is as close to carpet bombing you want to get. these became available for journalists in 1988. that was a new chapter in coverage. we had official access to the city, which had been cut off prior to this. we had to go in over the mountains but now we could go into the city and document. this was interesting. this is the military academy. you can see the discipline, the confidence, the training involved in the military academy of afghanistan. these are all members come also whose families are probably without doubt members of the afghan communist party. most of these people had to flee for their lies and ended up in pakistan, iran, india, or europe.

institutionally, the whole foundation of afghanistan began to implode. that is what we got in 2001. this is the british area in downtown tebow, an interesting -- downtown couple -- trouble -- kabul. they were able to establish a foothold in the country. the main tribal leader in this region, pakistan, you can see the importance of borders and geography. it will be a recurring theme this evening. this is when they were finally successful in taking over a province. that spelled doom for the government in kabul. missiles would regularly fall

inaccurately. that was the weapon of choice from the government the soviets had left behind. most of these are agricultural guys living from the countryside who had been pushed across the border in pakistan. this is the main conduit for the cia and the isi throughout the 10 years war. if you remember charlie wilson's war, this is one of the main areas they would come to visit. very well educated, he is basically the godfather of global jihad. in the early 1980's, he want to mecca on a regular basis to raise money for his training camps. he was encouraged by the cia and the pakistanis and given it a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars. he was also the one who befriended osama bin laden.

i went there in 1992 ask him -- in 1990 two ask him if he was trading. it was the beginning of the conflict in india in 1989. he was also very hospitable. he did not care that i was an american, what passport i had. he did not care what he told me. it was very much matter of fact. "yes i am in favor of local jihad." he also befriended osama bin laden. these camps still remain. he is rumored to be in a nursing home somewhere in pakistan but his sons continue to maintain the network. this is the backside of the camp. it was built by bin laden construction equipment.

that is a captured russian tank. this is the backside. you can see how well it blends into the terrain. these are two al qaeda representatives threatening four afghans in the same area. a dry riverbed, right across the border from pakistan. this is tribal territory. with good connections, you can get in. now, the only way westerners can get in is with a drone. these camps are still active. one of the more interesting ethnic groups. there was a big compound. fortunately, the reporter i was working with, tony davis, who spoke fluent mandarin we came across this -- they are learning

how to take apart an ak-47. they freaked out and you can see there looking down, did not want to engage. they said as to why they were there, their parents had a chinese restaurant in pakistan and they were only there for the weekend. [laughter] the legacy of this is that they are still there in this training camp. they are still creating trouble for the chinese in northwestern china and they are under a lot of pressure back home. back to kabul. no visa was required. just good contacts. wait a a while and eventually, you would get in. the daily life was interesting. here you have the traditional dance known as the aton and

mogul gardens. it is a lovely situation and it takes place every friday, their day of rest. as things got closer and closer to 1992, this is also from 1992. daily life went on but rocketing was also going on. here you have the one and only daily newspaper being hocked by this young kid. the whole context and content is one man who can read reading the newspaper to everyone who cannot. this was in march of 1992 and know when the government was tot tering, i managed to stay for a month. "time" and insisted we stay.

i volunteered. it was one of the best things about the region, no one could find you. it will stab you list. [laughter] april 18, 1992, -- it was fabulous. this was something i never thought about but dreamed of, seeing how an attack on the government is carried out. this is what afghanistan looks like ethnically. if you learn to read faces, you can see all of the major groups here except for the majority ethnic group. afghanistan is essentially a nation of tribes, clans and ethnic groups. it is not a formal country, in my opinion. here, you have the recently defected minister of defense. he had just defected from the government and pretty much in that signals the the government is going to collapse.

these are the shia sect. faces, more central asia looking. and come at the very charismatic leader of which we have a gentleman wearing one of their hats. persian. not in the good graces of the cia or pakistanis. here, they are announcing the eventual takeover of kabul. which ministries will attack at which intersections. the entire competition versus the posh stands -- pushtons. one week later, you have these fearless fighters blocking an intersection and who are they blocking but the pashtuns.

if you look closely, no shoes. they are fearless villas. we also thought their blood might the green. they were just mad and they loved to fight. they fight for loot and narcotics. the victory celebration lasted about 24 hours and we will dip into the civil immediately. 1993, the onus of any civil war falls on the civilians. here you have a man who went out early wanting to probably get milk and eggs caught in the crossfire, injured. he is carried across by a civilian and a policeman. a typical scene in downtown kabul in 1993. this is the ministry of defense.

the rockets were devastating. that was daily life for everybody. this is a typical, stand beside the bottle as -- puddle as the tank goes through scene. different ethnic groups or fighting over western kabul. shia, sunni, government, nongovernment. deals were being made all of the time. artillery battles. this is one particular family leaving quickly. if you have five seconds, 30 seconds, what do you take? it became evident this was a serious move to get out of town or move aside quickly. a bicycle, a teacup, a chicken and a bag of food.

the daughter in law and the mother combined household. no men of fighting age. they got to go back three days later but they are caught on a crossfire on a hillside in downtown kabul. not a generous fellow. he cut gasoline, food, and u.n. supplies into the capital. when gas became unavailable, you had to buy it on the black market including taxis. this is what it looks like if you have to take a taxi in the morning to go to work. about 25 people and this car. it is a very hardy vehicle. you can see how low to the ground it is. it could be called the clown car but it is not, really. this is the way you got to work

because buses and taxis were not running. the families suffer. a family of six without a breadwinner. a woman whose husband had been killed in 1992. they had a ration book for food work about $15 a month squatting in an apartment in kabul. downtown kabul in 1994. this is the main district. the front line is right here. down in the center of the picture is our al qaeda fighters pakistanis. these are government water boys during a low in the activity. during one of the lowell's the activity, i went -- lulls inactivity, another group of five, up to them and talented them and accuse this group of

stealing their television. you live on very little money but a lot of loot. when anyone would want to fight over a television where there is no electricity is beyond me. how did they solve this? by filling this guy's stomach with bullets. they wanted to take our taxi. this is the fellow yelling for the driver. it is rare they have been that's. -- they and its -- bayonetts. this is how you learn to work with the best afghans translators, drivers. this driver was renowned for his fearlessness. he had a cutoff switch underneath the dashboard so when he said no, the car is not working, he would turn it over and it would make a lot of noise . they said, ok, we are out of here. they put the guy in a will barrel and moved him.

these are the drivers and the relationships as a journalist, you need to make. i would've never thought he had a cutoff switch underneath. walking around kabul in 1993 you would be amazed what you came across. to this day, i cannot find the other journalists i worked with but i came across these executed militiamen. behind a clinic in downtown western kabul. the battle was over here. this area is totally built up. it was a cemetery and a clinic on the foreground. these men have been shot and dumped, probably from another area. this is primarily a shia neighborhood. this started to become more of an issue than it is today.

we move from 1993 one complete chaos and civil war, roughly 85% of the country is involved in civil war. september 1996, whether taliban had come up and eventually encircled kabul. all of the militia groups that were fighting to keep them away and eventually made through's with them. these are two taliban men firing rockets. it is an interesting scene particularly you can see the rudiment terry ignition system -- the rudimentary ignition system. in october 1990 six, essentially, the government of the taliban came into kabul and this is reading out the riot act

to the population. there is no radio station, no television station, no newspapers. everything had collapse in relief of the civil war ending what you had to deal with was growing your beard for men, no woman will be allowed out of the house unless accompanied by a relative. schools will be limited only to men. shops close during mealtime. no loud music, no singing canaries was one of the jokes going on because afghans love birds. they do have a sense of humor. this was the way they established control over off denniston, on top of a vehicle with a megaphone. the civil war had ended but these were the new rules of engagement.

this is what they did do a university science lab. 1997 essentially 80% control over afghanistan. we are back to the rivalry. look at this picture carefully. the minister of the interior, pa stun. this former air force general just got a deal with the taliban to give them his city. to give it over to the taliban in return, they would allow him to continue to be the leader. within 36 hours, this treaty collapsed and as a journalist we knew this would not be a marriage made in heaven. we manage from pakistan to get one of the last flights in. you can see the faces -- uzbeks.

note, very few turbines. with uzbeks, a lot of turbines. we could hear this clinking going on about a mile away on the airport road, going across we realized this was a trap set up to soccer in the taliban and along all of these rooftops, they were being snide. eventually, someone walked across our path and into the building and opened fire. he came