hat triggered riots, die-ins, a movement to eliminate traditional grand jury proceedings when a police officers uses deadly force and a presidential task force on policing. the premise of the black lives matter movement boils down to the fact police the biggest threat facing young black men today. i want to propose a counter hypothesis to that which is there is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police. now, every unjustified police shooting or death my other means

is an unmitigating tragedy. a task where the police have to work to refine tactics to make sure they don't misperceive threats. the police have an obligation to treat everybody they encounter with courtesy and respect and that obligation and too often violated. the police develop rough attitudes on the street in part because of the behavior that they receive in trying to make arrest or investigate crimes. but that civilian behavior is no excuse for treating people rudely. nevertheless, in new york city alone today 10,000 minority males are alive who would have been dead had homicideerates remained at the early 1990's level. and what saved those lives was a revolution in policing that began in 1994 and continued and spread throughout the country.

the essential aspects of that revolution is an obsession with crime data, analyzing crime data on a daily if not hourly bases to try to figure out where crime patterns were emerging and accountability for police prestinct standers. it used to be nobody could control crime or hold them countable. and now the nypd is ruthless about imposing rules. if they don't save black lives their careers are at jeopardy. what happened in new york was to liberate the law-abiding residents of inner city neighborhoods to be able to go out into the public to shop, to

go to the store, pick up their mail and post office, elderly women could come into the lobbies of their building without being fearful of their drug dealers. there is one other thing that drives new york policing and that is community demand for assistance. we are seeing a movement to depolice, decriminalize in new york there is an effort to cut back on broken window policing which is the idea of enforcing low level quality of life offenses. to unfairly burden minority communities. if this push to decriminalize becomes effective it is going to involve ignoring the very people whom the advocates report to represent.

policing low level offenses is a moral imperative. i have never gone to a police community meeting in harlem or the south bronx or central brooklyn when i have heard vari' varients of the follow request. you arrest drug dealers and they are back on the corner the next day. why can't you get them off the streets? there is kids hanging out in my lobby smoking weed why can't you arrest them for loitering? i smell weed in the hallway. somebody is breaking the law here. i met an elderly cancer amputee who was terrified to go into the lobby to get her mail because of the youth hanging out.

she said, please, jesus, send more police. i will conclude while we need constantly to work on police-community relations what is being lost, i think in this discussion, is that, to date short of i would agree with the judge, rebuilding the black family, the second best solution to giving the same rights of public safety and freedom to inner city neighborhoods that the wealthy enjoy is sound and affective pro-active policing. thank you. >> thank you. john, as the last responder, would you like to respond? >> i would. >> okay. >> this is how i see the issue that this panel is devoted to. it is definitely true that it would be ideal if we could do what we are calling rebuilding

the black family. obviously that is true. there are various things going on that i don't think need to be spelled out again on that ideally wouldn't be going on. but the problem is what is the likelihood the changes will happen? there is no way to create a movement in black america that would rebuild the kind of family we are talking about. i am not saying it should not happen but it clearly can't be done. we have to talk about what we mean. could it be a concern number of black leaders and columnist made a call for the rebuilding of theic black family and it would be affective? if one out of two of those black leaders and columnist made the call they would be raked over

the coals by the usual suspects. so the atlantic and slate and all of the other people would talk about what horrible human beings these people were for not under understanding the role of the past. would they need to go to therapy? no. what would result is op-eds of people battling it out. the result is a draw and no body would learn anything and nothing would change. that is what would happen if one out of two people devoted to building a family. if al sharpton took that michael dyson would write a piece about how horrible is it is it would be a draw. >> cornell west would no longe

r write the forward. [laughter] >> and things would move on. let's say all black leaders, or even 95% of them, decided the black family needed to be rebuilt and they said it. well, let's face it, there is too much diversity of opinion in the black community for that to be a possibility. would it be nice? yes. could it happen? no. there is too much diversity now. even under jim crowe there was more diversity and black opinion and i don't just mean duboise and washington. it was hard to say what the black voice was because of the diversity.

certainly now there will never be that. it would be nice if there would be but there can't be. so by being a linguist it seems an abstraction and that is something else i do. i used to say my race and linguistic work was separate but that is less true the older i get. linguistic is a problem solving discipline. it is half humanities and half science. it is taught in the same way as engineering and biology where one must work things out. i am based on how can we solve the problem and that is not always through the way that might seem the most intuitive. when i say something like baltimore, when i say something like ferguson, and you see these things repeating themselves, it seems what you are looking for is one solution, one card you could pull that would make the whole house fall down. and i don't think that it is a call for change in the black family. that doesn't seem to work. but could something else work. and i think it would.

for example, you are mentioning the people in the project who want to get these people off of the streets who are pedaling drugs, that is very real, that is very true and i wish more of america would understand black communities themselves want more policing, but in terms of the endless cycle we go through i am thinking here is this person keeping the wolf from the door by selling drugs. why is he doing that? well, drugs are sold for a markup. you are not going to get rich, but you can keep the woldff from the door. if you had a terrible education and not much of a life and you drop out of school after 11th grade what are you going to do? you could get a job in a factory in 1935.

you will not do that now but people drop out of school at 10-11 grade. when those people get killed selling drugs they will say you were killed working odd trades. the drugs are there because drugs are illegal and can be sold for a markup. you look at this entire situation and i find myself thinking not at some sort of libertine about drug use but as someone who thinks wouldn't it be nice if cops and kids like freddie gray didn't encounter each other so often. suppose there was no such thing as being picked up by a cop because of your possession of or your sale of this and that. if you could not keep the wolf from the door by selling these things then what would happen? i have all reason to predict is fewer people would drop out and even a person dealing with being underserved would have no choice but to get a job.

if i were living in an inner city community and i was underserved by my school and my father wasn't around i can imagine i would want to do a job that would involve not wanting to leave my neighborhood, not learning a new way to talk spending time with friends, with the possibility of getting rich. if that possibility didn't exist, however, i would get low level work and hopefully build. it would go back to the way poor black communities were before in . black people and crime. my thought is that the lynchpin of black people and crime is the drug issue. jack riley is the head of the dea in chicago and he said 90% of black violent crimes are about drug and gang wars and turf. so there is often a conversation about black people and violence

, as if the violence is -- i don't know where this violence is supposed to come from. but the fact there is drugs is one thing. but a lot of violent crime is not because people like to fight but because people are in gangs. what is a gang for? it is not "west side story." it is not so people can hang out and snap fingers and do dances. the gang is for selling drugs. if drugs were not illegal there wouldn't be a gang to be in. and next thing you know there would be less violence, people wouldn't have guns, black people don't have an innate love of guns they are there to patrol the turf. so it seems like we are talking about getting rid of the war on drugs not because that issue is important to me but because i think that would keep the cops and these men away from each other. it would give an incentive for these men to seek legal work and not be in danger of being killed or in prison.

it seems to be asking too much of these men. to think these men would not get jobs if there were nothing to do but get those jobs is like being someone in 1996 saying with welfare reform black women are going to be shivering on subway seats. that didn't happen then and didn't happen to black men them. we need to try it i think. >> the repeal of prohibition resulted in the end of organized crime in the mafia in new york city city. governor, what is your view of legalizing narcotics to keep the wolf from the door? >> where i was born, the cops came around and shook down the runners.

i grew up in an apartment complex in the 1950's and 1960's outside of baltimore. in the 1970's, i woke up and realized you have to play to win with the pick three and everybody said the street number would go away. it didn't. and i wonder whether that analogy would hold true for drugs as well. your case is compelling i would say. it is very well spoken and i love listening to it. as someone who thought about this a lot, you wonder one whether it is true, whether that would actually occur, and two whether you are trading criminal justice problem for a public health problem when you are to some extent. >> very much. >> heather? >> if we are going to legalize drugs, i think let's not do it on a race ground. there may be reasons to do so.

i am largely agnostic about it. i would disagree to treat it as an overwhelming magnet for illegal behavior. i recommend a book called "on the run" this was a university of pennsylvania aspiring academic in sociology and befriended a group of young crack dealers and got involved in their lives and wrote a book about their existence. i disagree with the point of view she ends up blaming the criminal justice system for their own decisions to break the law, but what she points out to her credit is a group of clean

people who simply chose not to sell drugs or commit robberies. so there are probably the majority of people in the inner city who are not involved in the drug trade. they are making choices to abide by the law, they stay clear of the dirty people, and robert woodson has long said we should be studying the success cases and not always obsessing about the failures. that is a very valid point. i would argue, i spoke about the data-driven revolution that just transformed policing and brought about the longest and steepest crime drop in the history new york and internationally. the comstat revolution.

prosecution is now trying to use the same techniques of data driven analysis to design how to prosecute cases. i looked at the massive conspiracy gang cases that the manhattan da brought in east harlem. and through rioting social media and using their prosecutorial resources to target the worst criminals, they got massive gangs off the street. none of the gangs shooting each other had anything to do with drug dealings. the only grounds for violence on the street is a spin off of drugs. in fact, the drug trade has gotten more peaceful of late

because thanks to new york policing which has driven it in doors, but the violence continues and john by no means discounted the importance of rebuilding the family but i would opt for that. conservatives have their root causes and liberals have their root causes. the liberals are getting rid of poverty and income inequality and the conservative view is the breakdown on the family. i would not give up on that. we have not tried the crusade to give value to the fathers. that is something that is taboo today to speak about but something we have to do. >> i want to ask the governor to respond to that. and also to talk about it in terms of issues of federalism and

local control. policing have been something that local communities engage in. we have situations where attorney generals of the united states are asked to parachute into local law enforcement issues despite the differences in terms of police war with race and demographics between ferguson and baltimore and new york. the question i got is is policing local? is it national? we talked about the war on drugs, we talked about com-stat that is new york city driven. where are we in terms of policing? is it local? national? international? >> it is all three. but with regard to public interaction with the state police force it is 95% local as we know which is why you do what you do. i would feel a lot better about the national debate if it was about that issue which is really the crux of the issue in

baltimore. what happened in this case? what processes and procedures were followed or not followed? how did this guy end up with a severed spine? you depressed me with your initial comments because i am sitting here and i don't agree with you but you made a compelling case and i am sitting here depressed. but i do believe that there has never been a concerted effort and i understand this is the last of the progressives doing their thing and everyone is degraded and demonized but we have to learn not to care. i have been called everything. i am a republican in maryland. hostility does not intimidate me.

[laughter] and at some point, the common sense notion that fathers in those homes telling a 15-year-old and a mother who is the national symbol. but i wonder how many fathers in those homes if they are there could have had a you guys out there are doing your historic homework or you are going to practice. but we have not had that. it is just one steep decline since the 1960's. i am willing to try it but it has to be everybody all in. nobody cares what the left said about you because you will be intimidated and scared to be called a racist.

>> i am from brooklyn. [laughter] i am not scared. "goodfellas." "wolf ofg wall street." [laughter] i got four isis guys, monsters gambino soldiers, it is just another day at the beach. [laughter] >> you missed my point. [laughter] it is not a matter of being scared. in the black community, what would result would be a debate. people say mean things in the comment section. but in the black community what results is a debate of people talk about it and i don't mean it would be unpleasant but the result of the debate would be this person saying deep things and that person saying deep things.

it would come to a draw and there couldn't be agreement among the people. there wouldn't be any change in black communities because no unified message could come out. >> the president said exactly what we are saying with debt. >> and gets roasted every time saying he is talking down to the black community. >> we need a president that says i have five decades of evidence and common sense you are wrong and i will continue to say it repeatedly. i understand your point and those folks are not going away. i think it is worth a try and not exclusively of any other strategy but it is worth a try because half, not just politicians but pastors, community leaders, if more people sing from the same page we have a shot not to cure it but turn it around. >> is it a guy thing or what? >> i think both sides are responsible and decide not to have a child within the context of a marriage.

we often blame the father for their lack of personal responsibility, which is valid but i think mothers need to understand the most important advantage they can give their child is their father. if they are not prepared to marry the father of their child, the fact of the matter is you should not be having a child. and that is a hard thing to say because we have a sense of entitlement everyone has a right to a child today. and in the abstract that may be true but it is a recipe for hardship and we don't want to en encroach on later panels because the affects of single-parenting will be analyzed much more i am sure. i would agree with the governor

, we have not tried it and one of the reasons we have not tried is the dominance of feminism and the claim that strong women can do it all and men are being disappeared in our culture. if we can get agreement that children need their mothers and their fathers i think it is premature to say that would have no affect at least on the margins on the way people think about child rearing and fathers would not be viewed as an optional add on or thrill which is the way they are viewed now. >> the notion of father as appear accessory. that is a little scary. i am going to pretend i am back in my courtroom and say there is a question somewhere in that speech. it is not going to be pretty. it is up to you.

i will start with you. keep your voice up. >> cheryl washington, with the national center for state court. i am struck by the nexus of what is described as the left position regarding poverty and income inequality and what the speakers characterized the right's concern about the family of the breakdown. those two are so interrelated. so many of the women i know who had husbands and children with had beens often marriages break down because of the fact that they are making more money, what have you, the men sometimes can't find jobs and other families there is so many men low level drug crimes. >> your question is?

>> my question is do you see where those two are so related and there is a lot of discussion about the street and you see a lot of communities where drug use goes on in the college dorm suite versus the streets. >> we have the question. go ahead. >> first of all, very few people are going to prison for drug use . that the a fallacy. and prison remains a life time achievement award for persistance in criminal offending. this thug, and i will use that word without apology who shot the police officer in new york city had a rap sheet. he is on the street. if you cannot keep that guy in

, the pressure is still to keep that guy out. i don't accept the excuse that young men have to sell drugs in order to have a livelihood because every day there are people in poor communities who are going to jobs and doing the right thing. and i know the argument to say how can you expect marriage when we have this mass incarceration complex? they were making babies before they were in prison. prison is not what is responsible for them not being fathers. it is their own decisions.

>> one of the most pernicious myths about black america is about that. the data is absolutely crushing. read on the run by alice gothem, read gang leader for a day, read the lines cherished by liberals on the left. it is clear the problem in inner city communities is not there is no way for a black man to work. and this is hard to say especially with a voice like mine. it sounds like i'm being moralistic and i'm not. it is not there are not jobs available that are not wonderful jobs. it is not that there are not jobs available. it is that we live in a time where it is possible not to take one of those jobs. the question is how are you

going to make money, and i come back to my point, statistics from 2001-2013 over half of black men who are in federal prisons are there for drug possession of sale and another 16% in federal are there saying they did something violent or they stole something to get drugs. the figures are lower for state pen teverageries. nevertheless the drug issue is important. and i think it is clear that once drug sales took over black communities the level of violence in black communities shot up and are part of the reason we are here. if you read about a black community in the '60s and '70s is that there was so much less violence. people complained about what there was and you find out it was switchblades and things.

so it is not there are no jobs and also drug penalties are the main problem and without them we would see a major sea change that wouldn't require trying to change people's minds through preaching. >> governor and then the next question. >> sometimes these notions get their own lies and the evidence isn't there to back it up. with regard to the last point, not only is there evidence but i was part of that because if you were in state legislatures in the 1980's and judiciary committees, which i was, was and i remember to this day the debates about increasing predicate offenses to get more kids into adult court that used to be juvenile offenses because we getting tough on crime with a war on drugs.

and as we know, some of those kids sprwere savable and some we lost because we put them in adult prison. it is just a fact. and so we learn, hopefully, but we still feel some consequences and reprecusion from that mindset. and i remember debates we had to this day. i am sure the ones we had in maryland assembly happened across the country. >> your question. yes. >> lee bose with america works. the women don't want these men involved in their children's lives. for years we were counseling the men who were not paying child support about the involvement with their children. they repeatedly said they wanted to be involved but that the mother of their children

was keeping them back. they feel these are not republic tabble fathered their children. i think it is naive to think it is just on the man's part. it really isn't. >> i didn't hear a question so i will hear one from you. >> i am rich frost, retired director of the museum. i would like to make a couple quick point because i know you will want to keep it moving. >> i will keep it moving. >> i know you will. i don't know you can police your way out with incarceration. i have issues with legalization. maybe a red light district where it is controlled. >> amsterdam. >> that is is it. and thirdly i would take issue with the governor that yes legalizing numbers may have not eliminated but it reduced

it. you judge will probably know there are no more you will no there are no more bumpy johnsons running around because of the employment opportunities that have been reduced by the legalization and the lottery. the question i would ask is is there something in between what i am hearing between the more incarceration or legalization. >> we will start with the governor. >> you can have broken windows and you can have a real debate about drugs liberalizeation. they are not mutually exclusive. >> heather? >> you know, i'm well aware of the dilemma of somebody who is still on the fence about legalizeation. i can come back to john and say by not enforcing drug laws again, you are ignoring those voices in the community who say

i am threatened by the dealers and i also don't want kids smoking dope in public because that is also an assault on public order, but i know the very persuasive response of john which is that the only reason why this is a threat is because it is illegal. it carries with it the aura of violence precisely because it has been driven underground. remove that, the threat will go away. i want to add some statistics. john is right about the drug proportions in federal prisons being about half. but federal prisons are only 12% of the national prison population. the vast majority of prisoners are in state prisons. 88%.

and there, the increase of incarceration for the last two decades or so has been overwhelmingly for violent property crime. drug offenders are about 20% of the state prison population, and the other fact is, as the governor experienced the push to increase drug penalties came predominantly from the congressional black caucus at least with regard to crack because of the public health problems. rangel owens, they said this is the worst -- since slavery. so this becomes simply and empirical or medical problem of more or less drug use by criminalizing were decriminalizing, but we should

be clear that more addiction is not a good thing for our society. then it becomes then it becomes really an empirical question of how you get less people using drugs. >> we are close on this and so close that i want a response state prison figures as far as i know are 35% are in either for drug offenses or having done something where they say they did it because they wanted to buy some drugs. then as far as property crimes go, the question becomes why do we have reason to believe that the property crimes were committed? in a number of those cases it is highly likely that the person did not have a job. then you ask why did this person not a job and why is the joblessness so epidemic in

these communities? the answer from one segment is well, there are no jobs available. what creates a culture where it is a norm to not go get a good job after 12 grade? that norm is largely driven by the fact that in those communities there is this optional black-market which leads me to think if you took that away, you would have an effect probably disproportionate to the exact figures we are talking about. >> i don't agree that someone is going to go work for mcdonald's who is not inclined to do so. i think it is the willingness to work in a job that requires promptness showing up every day, not bitching at your job when he exercises authority getting back to the family because these boys are not used to -- they have not understood self-control and authority from

having a father at home. >> hang on. >> you may be seated, sir, if you wish. >> a statement rather than a question. no one is in federal prison for possession of drugs, simple possession. i have never seen a case like that. i've got about 25 years experience in the federal system. possession with intent to sell yes. based on volume or purity or both. if someone is a car load of drugs, they don't have that for personal use. let's assume that we legalize. what happens to the users? do you think that they will get jobs? if not who will provide the subsidy for them to live out their lives in a bright blue haze? >> this is important.

there is evidence that if we had that kind of legalization i'm talking about, there would be an uptick in addiction. i have talked about this repeatedly. it is hard to imagine that that would not happen. you know what, the race situation in this country is at such an intractable standstill we are just going around and around in circles. no offense intended but we're having the same symposium. it goes on and on and on. i honestly think that uptick in addiction can be classifiable as collateral damage if it had the effect that i'm talking about. there are three things america needs to do. where we have to allow some collateral damage. i also i also think that if that were really the case and it were visible there would be more research done been getting people off drugs in effective

ways. we don't have any magic bullet at this time. not enough research goes into it. addiction would go up. if we up. if we get stop this debate that we're having, this sense in the black committee that there is no hope, the hope, the general idea that institutional racism keeps a group from performing, which i think is not true, solving all of this might require that uptick in addiction. i openly say that we should tolerate it. >> one more question here. >> the center for neighbor enterprise. >> you may remain seated as well. >> thank you judge. i do what judges tell me. >> i like that. the phrase is purple haze. go ahead. [laughter] my generation. what can you do. go ahead, sir. >> will we have heard thus far we have not talked about the role of institutions within those communities.

we saw on the streets of baltimore good samaritans pouring into the streets cooking food for police officers. men with 300 intervening. there are elements within the communities that have the respect and control of young people. and there are examples i can give were gang violence has been dramatically reduced by empowering those healing agents that are within communities, but we don't seem to discuss those intermediary institutions. we just talk about it as if people are only influenced by incentives or sanctions. the cultural value elements. why don't we ever talk about those? >> that is a really good point. i'll name two. pastors and coaches. and maybe not in that order.

the latter controls playing time and teams and things that are important. that is not a race. that is a youth observation. race has nothing to do with that. you saw the pastors come together the other night. in some of these communities are more powerful than your politicians. >> i think you're probably right. >> one more comment. >> in lalks, i remember asking a cop if he knew about the rodney king beatings and if he had been trained about it. he had no idea what i was talking about. he hadn't heard of rodney king. and then i heard an interview with an older resident of baltimore who said he missed the time when the beat cop was

walking the neighborhood and knew the families, nuclear mom was. your sense of police engagement with the communities and acceptance and knowing the people in those communities? thank you. >> we have the expert here. >> actually, this is a question i hear all the time, especially as a city drents. we used to know our beat cop. i have an answer to where that beat cop was because the initial replacement for walking the beat as the radio car and the idea that we were going to measure police efficiency by how quickly they got off to 911 calls. that philosophy has been largely discredited. now we measure outcomes. the police measure their success by how much crime has dropped rather than by how many arrests are made or how quickly they got to a call.

so i'm not -- i'm not sure that there are people in new york at least officers walking the streets. they, of course, were criticized for engaging in too many proactive stops. obviously the more that you can know the communityi actually still don't know if that is truly not the case anymore. if it is not the case why it is not happening. the better. obviously that is an important fact. i was in louisiana recently and the women who drove me to the new orleans airport actually said she loves the cops. amazingly particularly loves white cops.

she said those i can really speak to. the reason is because they came their school and she was growing up and said, we are your friends. please come to us when you need help. if it's that easy, let's do it. probably it's not. my view is boy, the more interaction, i'm a big supporter of the explorers program. to figure out how policing works in the see it from the other side. the time that we need to fully explore this with this extraordinary panel who have been gracious and you, who have been incredibly patient and kind and knowledgeable. i thank you for that and i turn to our uber moderator for comments. [applause] >> defense secretary ashton

carter and martin dempsey e.t.f. about the 2016 defense budget this morning. you can see their testimony live at 10:30 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> today the senate's special committee on aging examines advances to help seniors live independently. medical and technology expert also testify starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern and you can see it here on c-span. >> they were wives and mothers. some had children and grandchildren who became presidents and politicians. they dealt with the joys and trials of motherhood. the pleasure and sometimes chaos of raising small children and the tragedy of loss. just in time for mother's day, first ladies looks at the

personal lives of every first lady in american history. many of whom raised families in the white house. lively stories of fascinating women. an illuminating and entertaining and inspiring read . published by public affairs. first ladies is available as a hard cover or e book and makes great mother's day gift. >> tuesday former arkansas governor mike huckabee became a candidate for the 20 16th rble nomination. he made the nomination in his hometown hope at the university of arkansas community college. this is just over an hour.

[applause] ♪ it's been three long years do you remember me ♪ tony orlando! ♪ if you receive my letter telling you i'll soon be fre then you'll know what to do sing along with me i wrote and i told her

tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree it's been three long years do you still want me and if i don't see a ribbon around the old oak tree i'll stay on the bus forget about us put the blame on me if i don't see that yellow ribbon around the old oak tree oh, no, don't give up on me yet. we're here for governor huckabee tonight . i couldn't bear to see what i might see you know my love should hold the key tonight a yellow ribbon is what i need to set me free so i wrote and told her please ok. you know it

tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree it's been three long years do you still want me if i don't see that ribbon around the old oak tree i'll stay on the bus put the blame on me if i don't see that yellow ribbon around the old oak tree ♪ how are you doing, hope, arkansas? [applause] are you ready? come on. ♪ now the whole place is cheering because they can't believe they see 200 million yellow ribbons around the huckabee oak tree i'm coming home i am coming home

we're going to tie the beautiful ribbon, those beautiful ribbons oh yeah oh yeah just like that keep it right there together forever tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree ♪ hello everybody! hello! i come off the plane and this is the first thing i hear. i like mike. audience chanting we like mike.

>> i have known the governor for many, many years. i can see why he is so trust worthy and kind and such a wonderful, honest, wonderful man. it is like that through this whole city. i'm not just saying that. this is a great city. [applause] on behalf to have governor and mrs. huckabee, i'm happy to welcome yule here today. i really am honored to be here. honored to welcome. thank you for all being here, ladies and gentlemen. so let's begin today by asking the former pastor and former college roommate of the governor, our good friend, mike huckabee, would you welcome him to do our prayer to lead off the day today, mr. rick caldwell. rick? rick: old college roommate,

huh? all right. let's pray together. father we pause on such an exciting day to thank you for your love, your forgiveness your abundant blessing on each of us as individuals and also as a nation. lord, we do pray for the health and the future of our nation. we pray especially for mike huckabee. we thank you for his life. a life lived full of charactering conviction, courage. we thank you for his love. his love for you. his love for his family. his love for his country. we thank you for his leadership and his willingness to come forward at a time when our nation so desperately needs a man like him. we thank you for the excitement and the hope that today's announcement brings. we are so grateful for the work

that you done in the life of mike huckabee to prepare him for such a time as this. while we ask you to keep your hand on him. lead him, strengthen him as he embarks on this journey. we pray in your holy and mighty name, amen. >> rick caldwell, ladies and gentlemen, if you will please. thank you, rick. beautiful. ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the presentation of our nation's flag and the national anthem. ladies and gentlemen please remain standing as we begin. ♪

♪ >> i pledge alegion took place the flag to have united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indwizzable with liberty and justice for all.

>> ♪ oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched

were so gallantly streaming and the robert the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o say does that star spangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave

♪ [applause] >> aren't they amazing, ladies and gentlemen? that was beautiful. [applause] i will would like to share the story with you. before i think this next song, a song i wrote five years ago for governor huckabee. this is the first time i have ever had the opportunity to sing it. when he asked me to come and honored me with this moment, i felt this was the right time he wanted me to sing this song to you. now, we are in a beautiful hometown of his called hope. so in a town called hope, we are

a nation of needed continued hope. and i believe this man, who is the most trusted man i have ever met in my life, can bring that hope to america. >> [applause] [cheering] tony: you can hit it. it is called "america is my hometown." >> [piano] tony: written by myself and michael cromarty. ♪ rugged mountains deep blue sea

a land of profits a land of liberty from the cornfield in the valleys to the towers in the sky america is my hometown mothers and daughters with fathers and sons with sisters and brothers we are a family of one around the arizona desert

to the appalachian high america is my hometown when i look around at the bravest ones that keep our freedoms sound as i hear the voice of the people paying tribute to our fallen ones yes, our daughters and sons america is my hometown from new york city to east l.a. people oh, people, please hear when i say when i look across this great divide

america is our hometown when i look around at the bravest ones that keep our freedoms sound and i hear the voice of all the people paying tribute to our fallen ones oh, our daughters and sons rugged mountains, deep blue seas and it is the land of brothers it is the land of liberty from the cornfields in the valley to the towers of the sky america is your hometown yes, america is our hometown oh, america is my hometown

♪ ♪ >> [applause] [cheering] tony: thank you, ladies and gentlemen. god bless you and god bless mike huckabee. and god bless america. >> [applause] >> ♪ and ♪ you were raised on an asphalt farm ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 46 governor of the state of arkansas, governor asa hutchinson. >> [cheers & applause]

governor hutchinson: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, this is an extraordinarily exciting day for hope. [applause] it is a great day for arkansas. [applause] and it is an important day for our nation. i am delighted to be here just as you are pleased to be here to show our support to mike and janet huckabee. 23 years ago, mike huckabee drove up from texarkana to my office, when i was chairman of the party, and he said, asa, i want to get involved in politics.

i want to run for office. i didn't tell him, but i thought, "you don't know what you are getting into." [laughter] and i saw mike huckabee go from a candidate to a leader to governor to a great national spokesperson on the national stage. i have been governor of arkansas for a little over 100 days, and during that time, i have had the privilege of governing with the majority republicans in the legislature and republicans holding offices. [cheers & applause] and that has been wonderful for me, but let me tell you, even with a republican majority and republican governor, being governor is still a tough job. and i think back to when mike huckabee was governor of the state for 10 years as a republican leader with the democratic legislature when arkansas was as blue as any state in the nation. those were tough times.

and mike huckabee came into office, happy to govern in a bipartisan way and lead our state in troubling times. he led our state with conviction, he led our state with conservative values, he lowered taxes, he balanced our budget for 10 years, he reformed education, he preserved our hunting and outdoor culture here in this state. he has led the state and done a great job as a leader of arkansas. [applause] and he did that, again, whenever he had to reach out to the other side and say, "join me in this effort." that is the type of leadership that we need on the national stage. [cheers & applause]

"time" magazine called mike one huckabee one of the best governors in america. and they were right about that. and he took his -- [applause] he took his leadership skills to the national level, and we, in arkansas, have been proud of the way he has represented us, he has represented our values, and he has pointed the right direction for our country. [applause] every step of the way, he has been accompanied by whom we have known as the wonderful first lady, janet huckabee. [applause] and today, we all think about the direction of our country and we have troublesome times ahead for our nation. we need a leader of our country who is steady on their feet, steady with their convictions, has a vision for america with

who has good, conservative values, and who is a proven leader. mike huckabee has every one of those qualities and will make a great president of the united states. [applause] our country needs the leadership of mike huckabee, and with janet by his side, mike and janet, we are here today to tell you that arkansas is on your side. thank you very much. [cheers & applause] >> ♪ janet: i have now been married for 41 years now.

but after our first year of marriage, i started experiencing some back pain. you don't like to hear the word cancer. any certainly don't like to hear the word malignant. i think mike really was the hero in all of it because he would get up early in the morning, pack me into the car. he would drive me an hour and 20 minutes to my radiation therapy and then bring me back home, and be in class that morning. plus hold a job down. if he would have left me, he should have done it right then. and he chose to stick it out. so, he made a promise to me, for better or worse, in sickness or in health. he had to live up to that promise right then in our first couple years of marriage. i don't know how you can go through anything like that and not get stronger. as governor and first lady, the one thing i did learn about mike is his leadership qualities. he had the capacity to take any situation, look at it, and see the how each decision he could make further down the road could

affect the state and the people. for katrina our state inherited 75,000 people in just a few days. mike instantly said i wanted all my faith leaders to come forward, your summer is over any , denomination that had a camp for instance, where they'll already have beds, playgrounds cafeterias. he said, i need you to open up. every camp became another little town. they loved him. they took them in. so much so that people didn't want to leave. real thing with mike said people first, paperwork later. don't treat these people like boxes. ♪ one of the important parts of really running for any office, but primarily running for president, is that you are willing to give up something in order to do it because it is not

an easy task. but i am always reminded of the song that said, "may all who come behind us find us faithful." i hope that even those headlines that my children, my grandchildren will see, that they will see that we were faithful. not just what we were given as governor and first lady, as mom and dad, or as a grandmother and grandfather, but that we were faithful in running our campaign, that we did it, you know, to the best of our ability but did it with good , character and nothing to be ashamed about. and to be proud of what we did. ♪ [cheers & applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please

welcome mrs. janet huckabee. [cheers & applause] janet: you do know i am not the main event, don't you? [laughter] >> you are the main event. janet: thank you so much. imagine yourself at a dinner and your dinner guests were george washington, john adams, benjamin franklin, and thomas jefferson. and you had 30 minutes to defend america. what would you say? would you be able to defend america? would you say that america is great? would you say the economy is soaring?

would you say our value system is solid? or would you say that the constitution is being trampled? there is fighting in the streets, congress is doing nothing. the unborn is not protected. and there is no leadership in this nation. [cheers & applause] where is the passion that those forefathers had? when they left the country to come and start america. do we have passions the today still that they had? is there anything that we would die for that our men and women fight today for everyday when they go fight? do we still have that passion? >> yes! janet: america is a great story, but i think it can be greater. mike and i started our story

right here in hope, arkansas. i moved here when i was one and a half. my mom had five kids in seven years. they are all here today. i am very grateful. [applause] perhaps she needed cable tv, i don't know, but she had five kids in seven years. [laughter] unfortunately, she had the raise those kids without government assistance by herself. but mike and i were educated here in hope, arkansas. and on generally 29, 1973, i had my first date. he had to wait for my basketball game to get finished. [laughter] and he had to wait for me to clean up and shower. and, unfortunately, all of the

restaurants in hope, arkansas were closed. and we had to travel to fulton arkansas, which is much smaller, to a 24-hour truckstop. [laughter] i might add, it was very quiet and romantic. [laughter] but it was perfect for me. and that following year, we got married. as you saw in the video, that was 41 years ago. but i'm going for the gold. [cheers & applause] because in nine years, that could be 50. i am not too far off. with my history of cancer, i thought i wouldn't make it to 20, so i really excited now that i might make a 50 year anniversary. [applause] you see, we have lived the american dream. and everybody ought to have that opportunity. but with that battle of cancer

and later when we were hardly -- may not have children, i found out right away i was pregnant with our first son. and mike and i decided right away that i was going to be a stay-at-home mom. now, that caused a few problems because -- but mike jump right into action and said we were going to buy a washer and dryer. he decided he was going to sell two of his prize possessions -- his guitars. those guitars would make him the fifth wheel.

but he had to sell those guitars, and he made a sacrifice for us. and we had a washer and dryer. see, that is what you do when you don't have everything you want right away. you have to make sacrifices. and if you don't have the money to do it, you find a way to do it. and you do what you have to do to take care of your family. and so now, not only with a newborn baby, mike took care of his family then and later on and i had three wonderful children john, mark david, and sarah, and soon to have three grandchildren. mike totally not only of his -- mike nunnally to care of his family but also his people, and that is why "time" magazine named him one of the best governors in america. see, america is a great country and we continue to make it greater, but what story are we going to tell?

that we gave up or that we fought with great passion like our forefathers did? that is what i think is important. that is the story that we have to tell. our president promised america hope, but our next president should give every american and take them from hope to higher ground. thank you, and god bless you. [cheers & applause] thank you. i love you. >> ♪ na, na, na, na yeah, this is my town where i was born where i was raised where i keep all my happy days my town yeah, my town this is my town this is my town ♪ ♪

>> on his first day in office, governor huckabee's door was nailed shut. it was an bill clinton's arkansas. he had huge democratic majorities in the house, in the senate. you had all of the apparatus of the democratic party aligned against mike huckabee, and all of a sudden, this republican comes out of nowhere. every day of my life in politics was a fight, and sometimes it was an intense one, but any drunken redneck can walk into a bar and start a fight -- i wanted to start a fight i could finish. i raised average family income by 50%. we did not slash, burn, hurt people, leave people impoverished, empower people to lead a better life.

i am not a republican because i grew up rich -- i'm a republican because i did not want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me. one thing that has to happen in america is moving the power away from washington where people are so disconnected from the way that so many ordinary americans live. it is a disaster. the closer the government is to the people, the more accountable it is to the people who are being governed. and so the fighting over the minimum wage, i will fight for solutions to help every american are in their bachelor. washington has done enough lying and stealing. i will never rob seniors of what our government promised to them and even forced them to pay for, and i will lead with moral clarity in a dangerous world. there is a difference between right and wrong, a difference between good and evil. i will keep all of the options on the table in order to defeat

the evil forces of radical islam. we believe in things, we stand by those things, we live or die by those things. that is why i will fight for what matters most. [cheers & applause] >> ♪ where i come from ♪ there is a preacher man in a cowboy shirt ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the son of arkansas, mr. mike huckabee. [cheers & applause]

mike: thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. >> we want mike. we want mike. mike: thank you very much. wow. folks, it is a long way from a little brick red house on 2nd street in hope, arkansas to the white house. [applause] but here in the small town called hope, i was raised to believe where a person started did not mean that is where he had to stop. i always believed that a kid could go from hope to higher ground. like a lot of americans, i grew up in a small town that was far removed from the power, money, and influence that runs this

country. the power and money and political influence have left a lot of americans lagging behind. they work hard, they lift heavy things, and they sweat through their clothes grinding out a living. but they cannot seem to get ahead, or in some cases even stay even. my own parents like that. my dad was not an educated man but he was a smart man. he and my mother did not have a whole lot, but they had honesty to the bone. they taught my sister and me the basic lesson of life that we were to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. [applause] it was here in hope that i learned how to swim, how to write a bike, how to read, how to work, and how to play fair.

i learned the difference between right and wrong. i learned that god loves me as much as he loves anyone, but that he doesn't love some more than others. [applause] i learned about america. in miss mary's kindergarten as well as in brookwood elementary, i learned the pledge of allegiance, the lord's prayer and a preamble to the constitution. [applause] we prayed at the start of each day, and we prayed again before lunch. i learned that this exceptional country could only be explained by the providence of all mighty god. [applause] it was here in hope i learned i to handle a firearm and a fishing pole. i spent a lot of hours with both. i got my first bb gun at age

five, a daisy, model 25, i still have it. it is in mint condition. i learned the basic rules of gun safety, and i never thought about using a firearm to murder someone. [applause] iran boat lines so we could catch catfish we would freeze and live off for weeks. it was here that i was baptized in the garrett memorial baptist church after accepting jesus and a vacation bible school when i was 10 years old. [applause] i truly went from hope to higher ground. it was here that i met the girl who would become my wife of 41 years and give me three children and share what will soon be five grandchildren. [cheers & applause]

we knew each other from elementary school, and we started dating our senior year of high school as she shared. it was also here i got a job at kxir radio at age 14. that job would pay my way through school and give me the opportunity to be a mentored by haskell jones, the station manager and one of the few republicans in the entire county. [laughter] it was here i became the first male in my family to graduate from high school. at the very same campus that stands today, right down on main street, and it was from here that i went on to college and want to talk about this university -- ouachita that this university. it was here i ran for student council at hope junior high school. [applause]

so it seems perfectly fitting that it would be here that i announce that i am a candidate for president of the united states of america. [cheers & applause] >> we want mike. we want mike. we want mike. we want mike. governor huckabee: thank you. thank you. i am glad you reacted that way it would have been a lonely day had you been quiet. [laughter] it was eight years ago that a

young inexperienced and virtually unknown freshman senator may great speeches about hope and change. but eight years later, our debt has more than doubled, america's leadership in the world has evaporated. and the country is more polarized than ever in my lifetime. 93 million americans do not have jobs. and many of them who do have seen their full-time job with benefits become two part-time jobs with no benefits. we were promised hope, but it was just talk. and now we need the kind of change that could get america from hope to higher ground. [applause] [cheers] governor huckabee: veterans who kept their promises to america who kept us free, wait for months for our country to keep its promise to veterans for basic health care and assistance

to cope with the scars of the very wars that we sent them to fight. [applause] governor huckabee: our veterans should be getting the first fruits of our treasury, not the leftovers. [applause] governor huckabee: my friends, when i am president, our veterans will not be left on the streets and in waiting rooms to rot, but they will be treated with the dignity they have earned and deserve. [applause] governor huckabee: when i meet men who have an american legion cap or one that says veteran, i never try to fail in saying, thank you for giving me my freedom.

we owe them more than a pat on the back. we need to take them from hope to higher ground. [applause] governor huckabee: washington is more dysfunctional than ever and it is the so beholden to the donor class, that it ignores the fact that one in four american families are paying more than half of all of their income for housing. homeownership at the lowest level in decades. and a lot of young people with heavy student debt are likely to -- are not likely to afford their first home for a long while. our federal policies for affordable housing are not designed to protect families but bureaucrats. we have a record number of people enrolled in government-operated health programs like food stamps and it is not because people want to be in poverty. it is because they are part of

the bottom 90% of this country of american workers whose wages have been stagnant for the past 40 years. [applause] governor huckabee: the war on poverty has not ended poverty, it has prolonged it. i do not judge the success of how many people are in government assistance. i judge how many people have good jobs and do not need government assistance. [applause] governor huckabee: we do not create good jobs for americans by entering into unbalanced trade deals that forgo impressionable scrutiny and looking the other way as the law is ignored so we can import low-wage labor, undercut american workers and drive wages lower than the dead sea. that is unacceptable. [applause] governor huckabee: as the

governor mentioned, i governed in a state that was the most lopsided and partisan in the country. no republican governor had more democrats and fewer republicans. i challenged the deeply entrenched political machine that ran the state. it was tough sledding. but i learned how to govern. and i learned how to lead. and even in that environment, we passed 94 tax cuts, rebuilt our roads system, saw dramatic improvements in student test scores and fought the corruption of the good old boy system so that working-class people would finally the given a fair shake. [applause] governor huckabee: we saw family income increase by 50% during my tenure. there are some who propose that to save the safety nets like medicare and social security, we should chop off the payments for the people who have faithfully had their paychecks and pockets picked on the politician

promising their money would be waiting for them when they were old and sick. you were forced to pay for social security and medicare. for 50 years, the government grabs the money from our paychecks and says it will be waiting for us when we turn 65. if congress wants to take away someone's retirement, let them end their own congressional pensions, not your social security. [applause] governor huckabee: as president, i promise you will get what you paid for. how can anyone trust government again if they steal from us and lie to us?

it did not help when congress took $700 billion out of medicare to pay for obamacare. instead of helping families find affordable health care, we created a monster that forces us to buy coverage we do not want do not need, and cannot afford. [applause] governor huckabee: imagine congress boasting they will fight to repeal obama care and then turning around and signing up for it. real health care reform will focus on prevention and cures, rather than costly intervention. because hope comes from the fighting yours for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and , alzheimer's. the same way we once lined up at the courthouse in the 1950's and took our vaccines and eradicated polio. cures could give real hope to families who hear a dreaded night gnosis and sentenced to a

slow and agonizing death. focusing on cures instead of treatments saves money, lives, and families. i remember president kennedy telling us we would send a man to the moon and bring him home within the decade. president kennedy did not live to see that come true. but i did. and it made me believe that america could do anything it set its mind to. [applause] governor huckabee: and as president, as president, i wanted to our approach to health care to save money and lives not just a bunch of government programs. [applause] governor huckabee: we face real threats from radical jihadism in the forms of savage groups like isis and state terrorist like iran. we put more pressure on our ally israel to cease building

bedrooms for their families in judea and samaria than we do on iran for building a bomb. [applause] governor huckabee: dealing with radicals who chant death to america and who fund bombs and rockets to murder civilians in israel is nonsense. when i hear our current president say he wants christians to get off their high horse so we can make nice with radical jihadists, i wonder if he can watch a western from the 1950's and be able to figure out who the good guy and the bad guys are. [applause] governor huckabee: as president, i promise you that we will no longer merely try to contain a jihadism, we will conquer it. [applause]

in[cheers] governor huckabee: we will deal with jihadi's just as we would deal with deadly snakes. and let there be no doubt -- israel will know, as will the whole world, that we are there -- their trusted friends and the ayatollahs of iran will know that hell will freeze over before they get a nuclear weapon. [applause] governor huckabee: and i commit this to you today, i will never ever apologize for america. ever. [applause]

governor huckabee: we face, not only the threats from terrorism, but also the threat of new kinds of dangers. from a cyber war that could shut down major financial markets, to threats of an electromagnetic pulse from an exploded device that could fry the entire electrical grid and take this country back to the stone age in a matter of minutes. in and waiting until it happens is too late. but we have lost our way morally. we witnessed the slaughter of over 55 million babies in the name of choice. and we are now threatening the foundation of religious liberty by criminalizing christianity and demanding that we abandon biblical principles of marriage. [applause] many of our politicians have surrendered to the false god of

judicial supremacy. which would allow unelected judges the power to make law as well as enforce it. a bending the quality of our -- a bending the quality of our three branches of government as well as the separation of powers, so very central to the constitution. the supreme court is not the supreme being. they cannot overturn the laws of nature, or of nature's god. government in washington is dysfunctional because it is the roach motel -- people go in, but they never go out. [laughter] [applause] governor huckabee: as president, i will fight for term limits on all three branches of government. [applause] governor huckabee: that would return us to the founders'

dreamed that serving the public should be a temporary duty, not a lucrative career with generous pensions and paychecks that are not available to the very people who paid for them. if someone is elected to an office, then give the taxpayers what they are paying for, and a job you said you wanted. if you live off government payroll and want to run for office other than you want you have been elected to, at least have the integrity and decency to resign the one you do not want and pursuit the one you decided you would rather have. [applause] governor huckabee: as president, i would take seriously the 10th amendment, i would abide by it. because power was never intended to be so concentrated on the federal level. our constitution was exquisitely clear about keeping the federal government small should focus on , simple things like providing a military and securing borders.

there are things being done at the federal level that should be left to the states or families. there is no constitutional authority to dictate education from the federal government. [applause] in governor huckabee: why have a federal department of education? it has flunked and needs to be expelled. [cheers] gov. huckabee: education policy should be set by states, local school boards and the moms and dads of the children. [applause] gov. huckabee: and common sense tells us that the best government is the most local and most limited. we have supersized the federal

bureaucracy and downsizee the military and that our borders open and uncontrolled. we need to address the immigration issues, but not with amnesty. we need to start by taking control of our own borders. [applause] gov. huckabee: as americans, we should get on our knees every night and thank god we still live in a country that people are trying to break into, rather than one they are trying to break out of. [applause] gov. huckabee: i am running for president because i know there is a difference between making a speech and making government accountable to the people who have to pay for it. you cannot spend money you do not have, you cannot borrow money you cannot afford to pay back. the federal government should live by the rules that you have to live by and they should function under a balanced budget

law, just like i had to every year i was a governor. [applause] gov. huckabee: i do not want to hear politicians talk about tinkering with the tax code and making little adjustments that let powerful washington interest pick the winners and losers. we can never create prosperity for working people, never grow our economy out of the bottomless pit of debt. never move america back to the greatest economy on earth if we continue to punish productivity and subsidize reckless irresponsibility. [applause] gov. huckabee: there was a man i met at a machine shop in new hampshire. he told me how he started working a double shift to help his daughter pay for grad

school. he figured if he worked 16 hours a day, rather than eight, he would bring home twice the pay. but he found out that the money he worked for on that second shift put him in a new tax bracket and the government got more of it than he did. it is not that our tax system is punishing the richest people in america. they can afford accountants and lawyers who take them. it is the people who work for wages that cannot get ahead if the government penalizes for trying to do better. [applause] gov. huckabee: as president, i will work to pass the fair tax which would no longer penalize people's work. [applause] [cheers]

gov. huckabee: we would not penalize their work savings or investment or good stewardship. it would be the end of big government bailouts and most of -- and most importantly we would , finally rid ourselves of the biggest bully in america, the irs. [cheers] [applause] gov. huckabee: the irs would disappear and april 15 would be just another beautiful spring day. the struggle for many families is fighting over what the minimum wage on to be. it is a race to the bottom to figure out what the government determines is the least you can make. we need to be promoting the maximum wage, which is set by the worker who is willing to avail himself or herself of

training for a job that pays a maximum amount. [applause] gov. huckabee: we will never break the cycle of poverty by pushing people to their minimum wage, only by empowering them to reach their maximum wage. that is how we take people from hope to higher ground. [applause] gov. huckabee: this country has to do three things to stay for -- free. feed itself. fuel itself and fight for itself. our farmers and ranchers provide food and fiber, and we have to keep them from being regulated out of business. we have enough energy resources under our own feet that we could bring affordable energy to america and become the largest exporter so that americans prosper in developing the energy, and we are not impoverished by paying for it

when it is produced by some shaikh or russian robber baron. [applause] gov. huckabee: we need to fight for ourselves by bringing manufacturing back to our communities, where we make our own planes and tanks, bullets, and bombs. [applause] gov. huckabee: the journey that begins in hope today, can lead this nation to higher ground. but i cannot do it without people being my partners. many who have never been involved in politics before now. i will let you in on a little secret -- i never have been, and i am not going to be the favorite candidate of those in the washington to wall street corridor of power. i will be funded by working

people who will find out that $15 and $25 a month contributions can take us from hope to higher ground. [applause] gov. huckabee: rest assured, if you want to give a million dollars, please do it. [laughter] gov. huckabee: i know most of you can't. i will ask you to give something in the name of your children and grandchildren. i walked away from my own income to do this, so i'm not asking you for a sacrifice i'm not willing to make. i do not have a global foundation or a taxpayer-funded paycheck to live off of. i do not come from a family dynasty, but a working family. i grew up blue-collar, not blueblood. so i ask you to join with me not just so i can be president,

but so we can preserve this great republic and someday so that your children and grandchildren can still go from hope to higher ground. [applause] [cheers] gov. huckabee: i still remember well when my dad took me to the dedication of the newly constructed boat ark lake, a few miles from here. it is now name for dr. lester sykes, my best friend since third grade who is here today. i was 8 years old and my dad said, "son, the governor is going to come and dedicate this new lake -- and i'm going to take you down there to hear him make a talk -- because you may live your whole life and you may

never get to meet a governor in person." [laughter] [applause] gov. huckabee: had my dad lived just four months longer, he would have seen me do more than meet a governor. he would have seen me become the 44th governor of my state. [applause] gov. huckabee: i always wish he could've been there and maybe spent at least one night in the governor's mansion, a place he never thought he would get close to. but i always wanted to deal that he did see that moment -- to -- from the best seat in the house. [applause] gov. huckabee: and i hope that he is able to watch in january of 2017 when that bashful little

kid from the orange brick red house on 2nd street is sworn in as the 45th president of the united states. and with your help and god's we will make that journey from hope to higher ground. god bless you, thank you very much. thank you. [applause] ♪ [cheers]

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

>> we like mike! we like mike! ♪

♪ >> why do conservatives oppose - another conservative group said- >> increased by 65%. >> the wall street journal has editorialized, as governor of arkansas with a tax increase of $505 million. >> it did go up in your tenure and also about $500 million. . >> analyzed your performance and they said arkansas, my country

be, final grade of f -- mike huckabee. the main reason for the drop was his insistence -- >> waiting for huckabee? >> elton john and a pastor are among the witnesses testifying this morning on the senate hearing on global health programs. follow live coverage on c-span3 at 10:00. >> seafood industry and safety are the focus of a committee hearing today. a bill has been introduced that will increase inspection standards on imported seafood to ensure inspectors me safety standards. you can see that hearing starting at 2:30 eastern on

c-span3. gov. huckabee:>> kate anderson brower on the role of the white house, from the kennedys to the obamas. >> who are the thicklands? >> incredible founder>>amily. i interviewed the part-time father who might be there right now. he works every week at the white house. nine members of his family work there. his uncle was a maitre d'. he said, my uncles ran the white house. they brought him in one he was 17 years old during the eisenhower administration and he is still working there. he was such a skinny little guy. they kept giving him ice cream to eat.

people, that is a dying greet a person who remembers that. that's what i want viewers to pay tribute to these people. >> sunday night on c-span's q&a. >> live today on c-span, "washington journal" status next. defense secretary ashton carter and general martin mc testify about the defense department budget request. later at 2:00, a special committee on aging examines equipment to help seniors live independently. coming up in an hour, ross eisenbrey and michael tanner discussed the role of government in combating inner-city poverty in communities like baltimore. at 9:00, colonel john petkosek

is here to talk about preparing u.s. troops for international ♪ host: good morning and welcome to the "washington journal." the president named the next joints chief of staff. he will -- is expected to be confirmed by the senate and nomination hearings and the boat take place this summer. general martin dempsey, the current joint chiefs will testify on capitol hill about the defense budget alongside the secretary of defense. live coverage here on c-span at 10:30. elton john will testify