folks out there and answer your questions and i do this, as you know, i traveled around. i'll sit down in a coffee house with four, five people in some of the smaller rural counties of the state. i'll come to pizza ranch and we'll have a larger crowd. sometimes we have bigger crowds than this. and i take the opportunity for you to get a chance to know a little bit about me and what i believe in, the vision for the country and to remind you of something that's very important. and i sort of highlighted this a little bit in introducing steve, but the reality is that this race doesn't begin until you vote on monday.

and when you vote on monday, here's what my call to you -- lead, don't follow. lead, don't follow. don't just follow what, you know, all the folks want to talk about and what the interesting dynamics of the race are. this entire race, every interview i do on national media, do you know what they want to talk about? polls. all they want to talk about is polls. nobody wants to talk about issues, nobody wants to talk about solving problems, nobody wants to talk about how we are going to make america a stronger country. everybody wants to talk about polls and polls drive attention. attention drives polls and we have this vicious cycle where no one's talking about the big problems that confront this country. well, you in iowa know better. you're looking for the person who should be president. that's your job. your job isn't the same job as people who, you know, are from some of your bordering states. from illinois, for example. by the time the race comes to illinois, there will be two or three candidates and they'll have to settle for one of the ones that somebody else chose before. you don't have to do that. in fact, you shouldn't do that. your job is to tell the people of america that you've done your home work and let me assure you

they haven't. not because they may not eventually do that, but they don't have to because they're not voting on monday. you are. tell them that you've done your home work, you've looked at the candidates and you've decided that we actually want someone as president of the united states who actually knows what the job entails, knows and has knowledge and information about all of the issues that we're going to deal with, has a plan on how to confront those issues, has a record of surrounding themselves with good people to help execute that and has a track record of being a leader on conservative issues on every aspect of conservatism, or moral and culture issues. i get a lot of credit of that and i'm appreciative of that. but also on national security and also on economics and on health care, on helping the poor, all of those areas, we provided leadership and we have not just fought for conservative principles, we've won and established conservative

principles. and i'd love to talk with you about that today as we talk about issues. i want to mention just one thing you may not know and that is you're looking for a fighter to go and shake up washington, d.c. i hear this all the time. me too. me too. but i'd like someone who goes to washington and fights and actually wins, actually accomplishes something, actually can look back and say, well, i've done this and here's how we have moved the ball forward so the country can be better. i'll just give you one example, and you want to talk about, well, some of these guys, particularly the senators that are running in this race, well, they went there and they were in the minority and it's hard in the minority to get something done and they have a democratic president and, you know. it's just harder. well, how about this? how about a freshman congressman -- not a freshman senator -- how about a freshman congressman who goes to washington and joins

a congress that has been in democratic hands for 36 years and no end in sight? comes to washington and is told when he sits down in committee meetings, well, we don't actually propose ideas because if we do then some people might not like them and they'll vote against it so we'll end up opposing what the other side does. you talk about a minority mindset, a loser mindset, that's what i walked into when i was a freshman congressman. and so what i did was, say, well, i didn't come here to just go along. i didn't come here to fight. i came here to actually do something. so i will tell you two things i did. one is i believed, as all of you believe that what's going on in washington, d.c., there's a level of self-interest, self-dealing and corruption going on. you know what, when i got to washington i found that. i found that in the house of

representatives with something called the house bank and some of the practices that at the house post office where members were enriching themselves at your expense. i found out about that. an iowa congressman by the guy named jim nussle, we formed a group, and unlike others, we decided not to just let it go. we decided to fight. we actually went after both republicans and democrats who had a little experience in this, who were playing this game. we were threatened with all sorts of things, but our feeling was, you went there to fight. you went there to stand up for the truth and i went there to win. we didn't back down. we took a lot of heat. but what happened in the end? we brought down the democratic majority in the united states house of representatives. that 30 -- 36 was turned into 40

years ended in 1994 because of a group of young fighters, not just fought -- i could have fought that fight and just tried to do it where i got credit for being a fighter and didn't actually accomplish anything. and i might have actually gotten more press. you might actually know me better way back when, but that's not what my goal was. my goal was to win, and so that means you have to actually sometimes make compromises and you work with other people to actually get to your goal instead of just focusing on you. and that's what we did. and we won. i'll point out one other thing when i got there. i mentioned members of congress said to me, we didn't want any ideas. that causes trouble. so i said, well, i didn't come here not to cause trouble. i came here to actually try to push solutions that were going to change things for the better.

and i remember being on the budget committee and i was told, we're not going to offer an budget. we'll just oppose what the democrats do. i'll give credit credit is due. a guy by the name of john kasich, we started interviewing all these smart people we could find and we came up with a -- anybody hear of a health savings account? well, we created the concept of health savings accounts for, the first members to introduce such an idea, and for the next 15 years i pushed and eventually brought health savings accounts into law. i just share that with you because a lot of folks at the top of the polls have no experience or the experience they have they have no accomplishment. they've never pushed the conservative ball forward to accomplish anything, and people say, well, we've stopped some bad things. let me tell you one thing that you all need to know. in the united states senate, it is easy to stop things. it is not hard to stop things in

the united states senate. that's why everybody's so mad. because it's easy to stop things. so you're running around saying, oh, my accomplishment is, i did something easy, i jumped a hurdle that was three inches high. because that's how easy it is to stop things in the united states senate. what's hard in the united states senate, what's hard in washington, d.c., is fighting things and getting something done. if you want someone who can do the easy stuff and has no track record in doing the hard stuff, there are a plenty of options for you in this race. if you want someone who's actually accomplished something -- i know that's a dirty word -- experience -- in this election, but here's my final point i'll make. i use it by way of analogy. i see someone who might be a fan of this university. iowa state is just up the road. all due respect, you got a lousy football team.

alright. you and you have for a long time. and so, you know what, i'm sure there's a lot of iowa state fans who are just so mad for so long that you haven't produced a winner that they'd like to go up there and just blow the place up, fire everybody and put a whole new team in. everybody feel that way if you're an iowa state fan? i'm sure some of you do. and that's how you feel as voters. right? we need to do the same thing in washington. ok. great. so you're going to put someone in that has absolutely no experience at all or, you know, hardly any, which means you're going to take someone who's a nuclear physicist and make them the coach of the iowa state football team. someone new, someone who has no experience. this nuclear physicist is a football fan, i'm not saying he doesn't know anything about

football, but he's a football fan. he watches football. he knows, you know, knows the difference but he doesn't know an x from an o, doesn't know how to chart a play or design a staff. an he doesn't know anything. he just knows he likes football and he knows he can talk conversationally about football. and so you hire him because, he knows about football. he can talk about football. so you put him on the team. let me ask you a question. if you were that nuclear physicist, you got to hire a team, right? you just can't -- you're not going to run the thing on your own. you got to run a team. who are you going to hire? are you going to hire a bunch of other nuclear physicists? no. who are you going to hire? people that know a heck of a lot about football. let me translate that to the president. you're going to hire the establishment. you're going to hire people who know everything because they have huge experience. because you're going to need that experience. you're going to need someone who knows. you're going to hire the entire establishment who created the

problem in the first place. if you want to shake up washington, send someone who actually knows what to do, that doesn't have to rely on the establishment, who has actually fought the establishment, who knows their arguments that will come to you and say, you really can't do this. i heard that argument for 12 years. no, i don't believe you. i have a different idea and have the confidence to be able to do what they tell you they're going to do. because a lot of nuclear physicists running for president will tell you everything you want to hear and then go to washington and say, oh, all these experts told me i was wrong. maybe i'm wrong. ladies and gentlemen, i understand, i understand the anger. i understand you got a toy ini understand you got a toy that's not working and you want to take a hammer and just beat the crap out of that toy, but you love the toy because you love this country. you don't want to just beat the heck out of the country. you want to get the toy to work. give me a chance to make the toy work. you have an opportunity to do that starting monday night in iowa. happy to take your questions. [applause]

yes, yes, yes. >> whenever i get a poll from a republican party or anybody wants answers, they say what's the number one thing in the country that's bothering you now? what's your top one, top three? and always comes out in the recent years is the economy and jobs. to me all these years the number one thing is terrorists in the world. the current-day isis and all the rest of them that's really spreading. it's getting worse to me so not enough has been done. six months ago, a year ago it was more going on and obama says we're going to make more air attacks. it didn't get much help. now you don't hear much about it anymore. how do you feel about the whole thing? it's going to piddle around. it is already been 10 years, 15

years going on. what do you feel about the military and the terrorists? rick: this is another area where experience actually does help. after 9/11, i recognized what the president said we're at war with terrorists, was not telling the whole story. we were at war with fundamentalist islam. saying we're at war with terrorists saying during world war ii we were at war with blitzkrieg. we didn't have any reticence about naming who the nazis were. but there was leadership about not being honest who the enemy is and what they believe in and what they want to accomplish. isis is a classic example. you have the president saying isis is not islamic, they have nothing to do with islam and we shouldn't pay any attention to what they're saying. the problem is millions -- not millions but potentially millions of muslims identify them as in fact muslim and are

considering or contemplating actually joining them and helping them. and our strategy of just ignoring that is an insult to you is leads to bad policy and actually makes them stronger. and so what i believe that we need to do is to be honest with the american public by describing them in the terms they describe themselves, how they sell themselves to their fellow muslims who they seek to get to join them so we can then understand what their plan is, how they plan to accomplish it and then devise a plan to defeat that. ignoring it, saying it doesn't exist has gotten us to where we are today which is an islamic state, isil, isis, islamic state -- there are many words for it

-- that is the size of the state of indiana, that is functioning as a state right now, producing revenue, governing its people and havinga law recent -- not recent -- a few years ago declared itself to be a caliphate. now, when i say the word caliphate, most people have no idea what we're talking about because the people has never defined nor has any other leader that i'm aware of actually gone out and defined what a caliphate is and what its purpose is. there has been a muslim caliphate -- well, it started right after -- or you can even say during when mohammed was alive but afterwards, there was a caliphate established, a sunni caliphate that was in place almost continuously through 1924. the goal of a caliphate in islamic law is to accomplish the purpose of islam. what is the purpose of islam? the word islam means submission.

the word islam means that you are to -- the purpose of a caliphate is to get the world to submit to the will of allah, to submit to allah and to become a muslim. that's the goal of islam. that's the engine by which that is established or was established over time is a caliphate run by a caliph. no different than a kingdom is run by a king. this caliph is different because you are not just the ruler of the country, you are also the religious leader of the country. you are both king and pope in one person. and so this caliphate has now been resurrected and muslims around the world are looking to see whether this is the real deal. is this a true caliphate? are these people that we need to follow? are they the ones who are being blessed by allah with success? and if he blesses them with success, then maybe they are the real deal.

are they operating a state with power and influence sufficiently to accomplish the goals of spreading islam? that's the first question. they look at, do they have land, do they have an operating economy? do they have the ability to attract force, people to their cause? all the things they evaluate to determine the legitimacy of a caliphate. and so what do you see? well, you have a president who has a policy that ignores all of what i just said. either i can't believe he doesn't know what i've just said but he ignores that reality. and basically said, look, these are a bunch of people who are corrupting islam and they're just tyrants, they're brutal, they're terrorists, they have -- and all we have to do is make sure we contain these people where they are and work to try to destroy their legitimacy around the world. that's the president's game plan.

well, if you understood that this caliphate exists and is able to attract people because they can say to the rest of the muslim world, we have established the state, we have maintained our territorial integrity, which is important, and we are able to project power by encouraging other people to join us and you can point to all these different events around the world. in the eyes of the muslim world, if they are able to maintain their territorial integrity, that is probably the most important thing for muslims to look at to determine whether they're legitimate, particularly in light of the fact that the united states is bombing them. and that we have troops on the ground and that we have a president saying that, you know, we want to see them defeated. this is perfect rhetoric for isis to go to the rest of the muslim world and say, look, the great satan is fighting us.

they're bombing us. they have troops on the ground there. they're attacking us. they say we need to be defeated and here we are. they can't trust us. allah is protecting us. we're legitimate. join us. and they are and more will as long as we continue this fiasco of a foreign policy of containing isis, containing isis is perfect in isis' mind because it allows them to maintain their legitimacy in the muslim world. so the answer is very clear. in order to create questions of legitimacy and credibility in the muslim world, in order to get them, to get other muslims to walk away from isis, the key is to destroy their state, to take the land back and return it to iraq and eventually syria, and any policy that does not do that will allow isis to prosper.

as president, i will put the required troops in southern iraq that require equipment and arms in northern iraq with the kurds to accomplish that mission. [applause] >> if you become president, will you look at the justice department look into the crimes, i.r.s. targeting groups, solyndra, fast and furious, on and on, are you going to investigate that stuff or will you let the scum slide? rick: the role of the next administration is to continue on, whether there is a continuing investigation to look at those investigations. if there are areas that i believe there are people involved in activities that were illegal or abusive activities of the government, we'll

investigate that activity. i have no doubt that a president santorum that would investigate the i.r.s. legitimately because there's no doubt in my mind that there was in fact a targeting of people and people were not held accountable for it. as far as the other things, i'll take it as a case-by-case purpose to see if we can move forward with an investigation and that includes, depending what happens with mrs. clinton, it includes clinton and her exploits in not understanding how to run a computer system. anybody else? >> i hear people talk about the affordable care act and i want to tear it down. as president santorum, what would you do with the affordable care act? rick: the affordable care act is a disaster.

it is driving up health care costs again. there was a report just this week by a -- i think the c.b.o. that said medicare prices will go up 11%. you saw that united health care reporting overall profitability and every line of insurance that they have with respect to the exchange products which is the affordable care act products. they lost half a billion dollars. other health care plans were coming forward saying the same thing. it doesn't work. insurance companies are going to leave. the insurance companies that obamacare created, most of them are bankrupt, here in iowa, that went to a private sector organization to start an insurance company to provide you with insurance subsidized by you to help people in iowa is bankrupt and is not going to pay back the money you have given them. and the case is true in a lot of other states and the other

states are bankrupt. why? because the affordable care act doesn't work. the structure of the act doesn't work. you're seeing merges of insurance companies. why? because the way they structured it was -- i said this when it passed, looking at the -- some of these provisions said we're going to end up with two and three insurance companies in america because -- one per state. because the act was written to drive out -- to make consolidation. the only way you can survive based on the rules you put in place. something called -- i won't go into it -- minimum loss ratios had pretty much everybody to consolidate to one company. then you had rules that sound really wonderful that the president is doing something to really help people afford insurance, and he called -- he called it, you know -- well, the technical term is community rating and pre-existing

condition clauses. all sounded like -- this is what he said. we're not going to discriminate against older and sicker people in insurance. they're not going to have to pay high insurance premiums anymore. we're going to help those who are in need. i don't know about you but i don't think charging someone who's older and sicker, who uses health insurance more more than someone who's younger and healthier is discrimination. to me that's called reflecting cost and market and that's probably a smart thing to do in order to get people to participate in your program. well, they ignored that because what i found out about liberalism, it's not what -- it doesn't reflect reality and human nature and what people will do. it reflects what people should do. whether they do it or not. and so the president put in place a plan that says, if you're older and sicker, you pay almost the same -- roughly the same amount as someone who's

younger and healthier. so what do you think has happened? if you're a young person, you know, if you're a young person today that is out there and you're working and you have to buy your own insurance, you know, just take this young person right over there. here's a young person. she's young, she's healthy and so she has to go out and buy insurance, right? i picked out a reporter i could cozy up to a little bit. so you have a younger, healthier person right there and she doesn't have provided insurance because she works for a news agency. let's say she's 25 years old. she says we have to pay $700 a month, $8,000 a year. that's not an outrageous price under obamacare. you can do that or you can pay a fine.

i think it's like $25 a month, something like that. so there are your options. and then you have the older person, sicker and they pay a little bit more than that. maybe $800 a month, $100 a month but they're using their health care all the time. she doesn't use it at all. so what is she going to do? she's going to pay the fine. why would she pay the fine? she could expose herself if something happens -- well norkts obamacare.t under the other clause is wonderful. she is a smart lady, even though she works for a news organization. you can't deny someone because they have a pre-existing condition. so she decides, here's what i'm going to do. i'm going to pay my $26 and if i ever have a situation where i need health care, guess what i'm going to do? she leaves the pizza ranch today. she's uninsured.

she leaves the pizza ranch today. slick roads out there she gets in an accident. she, you know, gets in a car accident. breaks her leg or something like that. first thing she does, pick up a call 1-800-obamacare. i want insurance. they will say, ok, you get it. no pre-existing condition. so she can get her insurance to cover all of her health care bills and then at the end of the time she doesn't need health care she cancels her policy. you say well, that's a stupid thing to do. and that's exactly what young people are doing. and that's why all the insurance companies are losing money. why? because only older, sicker people are buying insurance. and younger people are getting insurance and then dropping it when they don't need it. ladies and gentlemen, don't you want policies in washington that actually take into account what people want and how people behave to incentives and disincentives? don't you want something that actually reflects reality? and the best way to do that is

not to put government in control of these things but you. and that's why the health savings account put the hands in the consumer. 15 years ago, i think it was, i authored a bill -- i was in the senate. dick armee was in the house. i authored a bill that said, we should treat all people in -- with health insurance, every taxpayer the same. that employer-provided health insurance should get people who get tax benefits from that should get the same -- other way around. people don't have employer provided health insurance should get the same tax benefits as to people who do. that way everybody has the opportunity to go out and purchase insurance. when i offered that, some of the most conservative out there and think tanks said, oh, that's a huge expenditure of money. i said, ladies and gentlemen, this is about treating people fairly under the tax code and if we don't start doing something

about these people who don't have employer-provided insurance and don't have the ability to -- some support from the government to buy it, we're going to get something like obamacare, which is exactly what happened, because they didn't listen to me. if we put a plan together that gives everybody the opportunity to go out and buyer that own insurance and we have lots of choices and opportunities for insurance companies to compete, this will work. and if we have health savings accounts where you control your dollars, we'll put the consumer out there on the front line of health care. we'll drive health care costs down and we'll give you exactly the care you want. yes, sir. >> just following up on that. it sounds like your answer to the question of what to do after obamacare is repealed is to do nothing and go back to what we had because that's exactly what you just described. rick: actually, it's not what we described because we didn't have equal tax treatment for people who didn't have employer-provided insurance. that was one of the problems. >> ok. rick: so what i --

well, i think that's the big difference. i mean, the whole point of obamacare if you remember, we have to take care of the uninsured, and republicans -- i agree, republicans were ridiculously stingy in not recognizing that enriching certain people because they had employer-provided insurance and treating other people -- oh, you're out there on your own -- was a foolish tax system and was ripe for someone to come in and say we have to change the whole thing. i say we don't need to change the whole thing. employer-provided insurance is still there. obamacare has made them change it but they can change it back to something their employees actually want as oppose to government says they have to have and get an opportunity with tax -- with tax incentives and tax credits, the ability to go out and purchase the insurance themselves. >> and if they don't want to purchase it and wait until they get sick? rick: my feeling is with respect -- and this is what obamacare us offensively said they were

going to do which is pre-existing condition clauses were only to be that when you have the annual enrollment -- same would be the case here. there would be an annual enrollment. at the end of the year, everybody would have to enroll in some insurance to get it and if you don't enroll and you get sick or you have -- there is no pre-existing condition -- you suffer the consequence. that was what obamacare was supposed to do but they have 41 exceptions to that. including, i forgot. ok. it's ridiculous. >> how do you get people to get insurance? rick: i just told you. >> now they get a tax benefit, why will i get insurance? tax benefit will be less benefit to me than the cost of the premium for the insurance. rick: well, of course, everybody will make the determination whether they want to receive a tax benefit to help them pay for insurance or not. and if people want to take the risk of not insuring themselves, even though they maybe eligible for $3,000 or $4,000 to help

them pay for their insurance if they want to decline that money, they don't want to use it for insurance, they won't get it. they won't get it at all. if they don't want that money to be able to purchase insurance, then they will take the risk of being uninsured and if something happens, they won't have the -- be able to get insurance. and so there are prices for irresponsible behavior. government tries to say, well, we shouldn't -- oh, that's terrible. these poor people. no. we want people to make good decisions and if they make bad decisions we want them to suffer the consequences as horrible as that is. i want my kids to make good decisions but if they want to make a bad decision, i don't want to sugarcoat it. so there needs to be consequence. in obamacare there's no consequence. you're welcome. anybody else? yes. >> i'm concerned about the young people, specifically what the schools and universities have done to them.

i run into college kids who when you talk about isis, boko haram, al qaeda, their only concern is that these people might leave more than a carbon footprint. what can we do to get young people to understand that radical islam matters and, forgive me, climate change does not, nobody cares? rick: again, why would young people know about radical islam? i -- fundamentalist islam. what political figure in the last 13 years, 14 years has actually gone out and tried to explain the nature of the enemy? let's take iran, for example. how many people know what iran is, what they tell their people, what their objective is in having these nuclear facilities? if you listen to the president, you would think, well, these are folks that we can deal with and that they want to become part of the community of nations and they're islam.

you occasionally hear reported this harsh rhetoric that comes from them. oh, that's just to control their people and that's just an internal political thing. they don't really mean it. i use the example of this. if you were a father and you walked up into your son's bedroom and you see on his computer a bunch of social media where he's threatening to kill somebody, that would really concern you. you see all these posts who's talking about killing somebody, that would concern me. i'd be concerned but i'd say, ok. well, maybe it's just the social media, the chatter. it could be sort of just crazy talk and i'm not going to go -- but then i notice a file on his desk and i open it up and i see a plan on how he's actually going to kill this person. so i think, ok. you know, that's a little creepy. you know, maybe i should be a

little bit more concerned here. and then you open up the closet and you see a bunch of bomb-making materials that was to be used to execute the plan. you say, well, maybe, maybe it's not just that he's saying it, he's not planning it, he's actually taking steps to do it and you go out in the garage and you find a bomb. so you think, well, at what point in time -- i say this as one incident. at what point in time if this happens do you say, maybe we should take him seriously and actually try to stop them? so you have iran since 1979 has talked about destroying the state of israel, wiping out the great satan -- that would be us -- taking over the world for islam and talking about the return of the 12th iman for them to usher in this global caliphate of peace where

everyone submits to islam. they've been talking about that moderate, radical, doesn't matter the president. they all say the same thing. and they're out there talking about this all the time. and then we see it in had lots -- and then we see it in lots of information they have the tools to which to accomplish that. nuclear weapons program. they're putting on the paper we need to have a nuclear program. they talk about e.m.p.'s which is an electromagnetic pulse bomb, a tool that can disable the united states and defeat the enemies. all these things where they're actually talking about things they want to do. and then they start constructing a nuclear refining -- nuclear enrichment plan which you need in order to develop a nuclear weapon and they start building that and they say, oh, it's for peaceful purposes. we need energy.

of course this is one of the largest energy reserves of any country in the world. they have plenty of gas for their electricity. they have plenty of oil to run their cars, but they're building a nuclear power plant. and then we find out they're enriching that uranium far beyond what's necessary for a power plant. and then -- they say, oh, no, no. no. we don't have any intention. this is what they tell you. we have no intention of doing that, and then they put together a ballistic missile -- a missile system. so they can deliver some -- i don't know. maybe they can deliver canned goods with their ballistic missiles. but most ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear weapons. you don't use ballistic missiles for anything else except for delivering. they're developing ballistic missile capabilities. and then they have other sites that are hidden, including a heavy water reactor, which is only used for nuclear weapons,

and we have a president who says, these are people that don't want to do -- they don't want to harm us. there's no problem here. if you make the analogy to a father, that father is doing criminal activity, by allowing this to go on in this house and saying nothing. that's almost criminal conspiracy to allow that to occur, and that's what's happening now. a few days ago, president obama lifted the sanctions on iran and gave them -- gave this entity which i'm talking about $100 billion to help them. $100 billion to lift the sanctions. rouhani is running around europe having a great time signing up businesses, making more money. wonderful. so they can enrich themselves, so they can accomplish what they keep saying they want to do. those sanctions that were --

well, a bunch of them were ones i wrote and i pushed them in 2006 despite opposition by the republican president, george w. bush. eventually we got them passed. i got a bipartisan bill passed on something that was a controversial issue, that was opposed for a long time. why? because i believe iran is the greatest threat to the security of the world, and we have a president who is arming them. let me -- he's arming them. he's giving them the resources for them to be able to accomplish what i have just laid out to you. if we don't have a president that iran knows is -- means business, let me assure you. the iranians know who i am. i have been out there talking about this for a dozen years. i have passed bills which i have authored that put constraints on them. they know who i am.

when i say that on day one iran will stop their nuclear weapons processing and will dismantle their facility or we will take them out, i can tell you i think with 100% certainty that they believe me. now, if you don't want that, if you want them to continue and you trust them to self-verify under this agreement or you want to put someone in there that they have no idea whether they mean it or not -- they may say. oh, you can't do this or else. if you want that -- if you want that lack of certainty on the part of the iranian government, then you have plenty of options in this race. but if you want someone that they know is as serious as a heart attack and you will find out if they're willing to dismantle, then you have one good choice and i hope you make it. anybody else? and then we are i -- getting stretched on time. >> talking about caucusing coming up.

we'll hear people give speeches about their candidate that they're supporting. what sets you apart from some of the other candidates? you eluded to that already. what sets you apart? i'll leave it up to you whether you want to name names or not and compare. i rick: well, i think i talked about experience -- i talked about the intangibles, if you will, very tangible. as far as issues that are concerned and there are some on the minds of voters right now, i know you're a pastor. i would say on the issues that a lot of evangelicals in iowa care about, i think there are some really big differences between two of us in the field and the rest of the field. and, look, i'm going to be as honest as i can where everybody is and i would say mike huckabee and i are pretty much the same on these issues. there's not much difference between us. the rest of the field, there is a big difference between you.

and as you know, most of the folks, if you believe the polls, score at the top of the polls are getting a lot of support from people who say they care about these issues but they're not particularly good at these issues. and have a track record in some cases that are completely 180 degrees from these issues. let's take marriage as an example. if you look at the two leading folks there, you have one who has said that he -- that the supreme court is the law of the land and he will take no action, do nothing, not talk about it, it's over and marriage is what it is and forget about it. that's donald trump. and then you have ted cruz who says that this is not a federal issue. the issue is a 10th amendment issue, and the states can define marriage any way they want. i take the position that abraham lincoln takes -- took and that

is the states don't have the right to do wrong. the states can't define marriage -- so under ted cruz's view, and by the way, rand paul shares the same view and maybe others do too and that is if the states want to redefine marriage as marriage between a man and a woman, fine. if they want to define it between two men, fine. if they want to define it between two men and a woman, fine. they can do whatever they want. that's a view of state power that i don't hold. i don't think the state has unlimited power to do whatever they want under the constitution. i think the state is limited, as martin luther king said. he said there are just laws and unjust laws. and unjust laws are laws that do not export with god's law or the natural law. i don't think you can say that these definitions of marriage compute with the truth. and therefore they have -- they have no ability to violate that. it's like saying that the state has the right if they want to under the 10th amendment to

define water as h-3-o. they say, you can't do that. water isn't h-3-o. you're right. marriage isn't anything you want it to be. it is what it is. and if we don't stand up for that as a party and we don't say it's not ok to do those things, then you have someone who i know a lot of these marriage groups have endorsed but i can tell you four years ago they would have never endorsed someone with that position. but now they have compromised. they have settled. and so my question to the people of iowa is, are you willing to settle? are the folks who say that they are strong supporters and strong believers going out and supporting one candidate who doesn't believe marriage is an issue that should ever be discussed, is a decided issue and someone else who believes the state can decide it any way they want including expanding beyond where it is today? i think both are wrong. if you want a candidate that will articulate that, then you

have two choices in this race. i'll be honest it. that's it. you have two choices in this race and i would recommend one over the other, of course. that's a personal preference. [laughter] so ok. i'll give you another one that's important to iowans. it's iowa specific. it's the ethanol issue. we have several candidates in this race who said they support the ethanol industry and something called the renewable fuel standard which is the industry to have access into the fuel stream of the oil companies. i voted for the r.f.s., the renewable fuel standard, back in 2005 when i was a senator from pennsylvania, not from iowa, and i voted for it because as you heard before, i'm concerned about national security and i want to make sure we produce as much energy for transportation fuel because we do get transportation fuels -- oil -- from countries that are not particularly friendly to us. even today. and so i would like to make sure

that we have as much made here as possible. and so i support it, really, from a national security point of view and have and written about it even as i was out of the senate and before i even thought of coming to iowa. and there are a bunch of other candidates -- who have just recently may be within the last few months have decided that ethanol is not so bad after all and that we can see our way to keep this thing around. havelmost all of them, sort of had an election-year conversion. to the extent that the people of iowa want to believe that, go for it. if you want someone who is supportive for 12 years, you have one candidate in the race that can do that. you have two candidates in the race who say they will eliminate.

and your united state senator and the governor, we don't talk about both, but one of those two -- it is ted cruz and rand paul. cannot talk about paul because he is not high in the polls. if the state of iowa, particularly interesting enough, opposed tois most ethanol is getting most of his votes and rural, agricultural iowa. which is sort of funny. you would think he would get it from des moines. people there don't know what it is. they don't care about ethanol. but he is actually getting his votes from the people most affected by the industry. that will not be lost on oil. and when they come back to washington, after the rural iowans get support from the renewable fuel standard on a vote for someone who wants to get rid of it, i can tell you that will be very sharply

communicated to all of the members of congress, telling them that the people of iowa do not want it anymore. why should we continue to subsidize big ethanol? if you think the bill will survive that, i have a bridge in brooklyn to sell you. because it will not. iowa, look, iof spent a lot of my life here i would last five years. i like the people of iowa, the folks in rural iowa a lot. they will take a hit if they marched down that road. yes sir. >> what are your thoughts about illegal immigration, dream act, sanctuary cities? rick: again, great question. it is a differentiator. there is a group that is the signature immigration group that is concerned about immigration from the standpoint about how it affects american workers.

they consistently have given me an a rating from the beginning of the campaign until now. rating,s no other a there was only a b-. but as the campaign has changed we have two candidates that have decided they would morph their positions and they now have a- and b+ ratings. no surprise, that would be donald trump and ted cruz. both of them have changed their position to be more on line. and that's how i articulate the issue of immigration. when i talked about health care and our health care plan, who did you think about? that plan affected? you thought about how it affected you, right? or affected someone in the person. someone in america.

when i talk about a tax plan and say we are going to do it with taxes. how does it affect me and other people in the community? when i talk about immigration or anybody does, we have been schooled and instructed that the person we need to think about is the person who broke the law illegally and how does it affect them? immigration policy is no different than tax policy. i quote barbara jordan, a democrat from houston, she said immigration policy should be in the best interest of the american public. do you agree with that? if it is, then why don't we talk that way? here is the reality. 35 million people have come into this country both legally and illegally and over the 20-year period most of those people are wage earners and most of those people and because of those wage

earners coming in in such large numbers over the last 20 years, wages have gone up at a rate slower than any other time in american history. even the "wall street journal" an article yesterday sort of conceded, lower-income workers, "wall street journal" is the open borders crowd. business needs labor. keep labor costs down. labor will find their happy pleadium. even now they are quoting the journals, folks who have done studies and they say it's a bad thing. oh, only them, only half of america is it a bad thing for. the reality is that the very people that immigration helps business, hurts the very people that businesses wants to keep their wages down.

and that's why you see this anger out in society because you have republicans who are pro-business, like most of the republican field, calling for amnesty and even higher levels of immigration and then you have democrats who want the same thing. why? they believe it's more votes for them. and it comes down to this. who's for working people in this country? i announced from a factory floor in western pennsylvania. and i announced because i wanted to make the center of our platform that those who are left behind by both political parties. folks who used to work in factories, at least in the town that i grew up in, and a lot of towns in iowa and the upper midwest and the fact of the matter, those jobs have gone away, most of them and people say they can't come back. that's a lie. they won't come back unless we change policies to allow them to

come back and be competitive. i put forward a tax plan, regulatory plan, trade plan and i have been very specific about that. but i've also talked about the role immigration plays because immigration can and will undermine the ability of wages to go up. what i have suggested is that people here in this country illegally should go home and do what my father and grandfather did. my grandfather came to this country in 1923. he was living in italy. the only reason he got in his because there were immigration laws passed after world war i, and the only reason he got in was because he had an austrian passport. it was an act to shut down italian immigration. sound like something that's being talked about now?

my grandfather got in and it took him seven years. my dad spent the first seven years without a father in mussolini's facist italy. was that a pleasant experience? i suspect it was not. but my dad always said america was worth the wait. he came here and now his son is running for president of the united states and we did it the right way. people who are most upset about this talk how we have to accommodate all these people who broke the law are all the people who obey the law, immigrants who waited, spent money and didn't subvert the law and expect to be rewarded for doing so. and so my point is if you want someone who has not changed their position, who has been consistent on securing the border, lowering the amount of unskilled workers we are bringing in this country to compete against those who are here and that is one candidate here you can count on.

that is what i will close with. there are a lot of folks say they are going to do a lot of things. in the end, americans get to choose someone who has a record you can count on. just down the road, this summer, chuck grassley introduced me and said the best thing i can say about rick santorum is, i have known him for 20 years and hasn't changed a bit. you can't say that about anybody else in this race on a whole variety of issues. if you want to be disappointed, elect somebody who says they are going to do something and then go or try to do something else or are unable to do what they say they are going to do because they don't have the ability to do it, then you have lots of options in this race. if you want someone who has a strong solid track record and record of accomplishment and a record of being able to win tough states and tough areas that if we win we might actually

elect a republican president, then i would encourage you to shock the world on monday and caucus for me. beyond that, not just caucus for me, but i need folks who are going to speak on my behalf and someone to take some of the energy and passion that you have seen here and relate that to the people in your community and let them know that they don't have to settle. they don't have to settle for the food fight they are seeing but actually nominate someone and put someone forward who can change this race and put it back to take on hillary clinton and defeat her and get this country back on the right track. thank you all very much. god bless. thank you. [applause] i like you speaking for me. you have a great voice. >> i used to be on radio.

rick: thanks for coming. i want to do a little afterwards. you want to do the photo here or out there? >> good luck tonight. i hope you're not too tired. >> good job, man. rick: you want to do a picture? >> yeah. i appreciate you, buddy. i mean that. >> hi, young lady.

rick: thank you. we will see you tonight. >> one more? >> thanks, buddy. >> is he going to the event? with trump, the military event? rick: i don't know if we were asked to go to the event. oh, we are? is goingrstand it, it to help the wounded soldiers. i didn't have anything else planned. so i'm happy to go and help. >> we are having a jazz festival today. >> i have a quick question for you. i know my parents caucus for you in 2012 and i know everything that you support. i'm in favor of putting limits

as far as term limits for congress. but i know that you aren't quite as in favor for. rick: actually, i do support term limits. i'm the only person in the history of the united states senate to impose term limits and i did when i came to the senate in 1995 and put term limits on committee chairs and leaders in the republican caucus. we tried to put term limits, but the democrats didn't support it in 1995, but six-year term limits on committee chairs. and particularly, the committee chairmanship has been effective. and open up opportunities for others. so i have made it happen. >> thank you for clarifying that. would you mind if we grab a picture of you. rick: sure. who am i looking at?

>> thank you. i appreciate it. rick: let's do it. just a couple of questions the reporters have. it is like running a marathon breathing through a swizzle stick. there is no oxygen. even when i do get media coverage it's like, are you going to donald trump's thing. time laying out what i thought is a pretty good vision for the country. there's twice as many this time. the media is in the business of selling papers and getting eyeballs for the tv program.

if you have someone who is entertaining that can draw a lot of folks you will cover that first and you will have everybody else in the race interact with that person because that is what people want to watch. >> you have practically moved here over the last two races. >> i don't know about that. >> compared to the others. >> it is a different race. i would love to think that we will make a decision based on health care reform and what you will do with the deficit and how you will fight isis, and what you will do to make the agricultural economy strong but that is not what is being talked about. we are going to have a debate tonight. one of the differences we laid out between the candidates, you will talk about who said what

about that. ist the media is focused on that it made it very hard to break through. if we finish strongly -- you want a candidate to finish strong in iowa that you never had an up runtime state. that should not happen. it shouldn't happen because the media should not be calling the field based on something that has no relationship to how well someone will do. we have evidence from four years ago about how that happened. it was ignored. it is not about giving the

american public a look at all of the candidates. it is who will get us the best ratings. that is not how a political debate should be structured. >> in 2012 to got a lot of support from evangelicals, talked to me a bit how that sector of the electorate changed. concerns -- number one, the supreme court decision. i think a lot of people got the wind out of their sales, so they are settling for something less than what they have advocated in the past and number two, there is a panic about donald trump and they want someone who -- will they are not as good on the issues, they are someone who has . lot of money that's who they are going to line up behind whether they are right or not. obviously, i don't feel that ultimately will be a successful strategy.

hello ladies, how are you? can we get out of the way of the food bar? i don't ever want to be accused of blocking people. do you want to do one of these? take one even with the packers jersey. congratulations. we know that you are a packers fan. >> we are coming up on some possible brain surgeries. >> oh boy. tumor and with the then a possible other condition. it could really be a problem. but you are amazing. thank you. >> bless you. we will pray for him. amen. you are not alone. god bless you.

>> thank you for coming. pictures?want to do >> you are like my favorite person in the race. >> are you voting? >> i will. >> will you caucus for me? >> i will. >> if you get up in front of a caucus and say i have never done this, i hate public speaking, i am really nervous, but i think he is such a great guy that i will do it in spite of that, you get the room. >> that makes a lot of sense. you have got my vote. >> are you guys altogether? are you voting? thank you. i appreciate your help.

we should do it away from the backlights. bless you. i appreciate your help. let's do it this way. thank you. come on, guys. thank you. is that it? ok. what are you going to do about the monetary system? >> change the standard of the federal reserve to include just the interest on money supply, keeping interest rates down, not concerned about unemployment rates. >> i was wondering what you think what the liberation sites and what we can do about it here.

>> i was talking on fox news about that the other day. we have the highest percentage of people who agree with my position on the syrian refugees which is we should not accept anybody because we cannot do adequate back rent checks, and we should not be relocating -- background checks, and we should not be relocating people who isis want out of the region. how are you doing sir? nice to see you. how are you? >> how is it going? we saw you on the way to d.c.. you were wearing glasses at the time. i appreciate your vote at the caucus.

there is still a chance to reconsider. a chance not to settle. >> i just want to let you know that you know that i respect and admire you. >> you can quietly vote for me at the caucus. [indiscernible] >> i asked him and he hit it out of the park. technology.

>> he said i believe there is hope for the child. to theay, c-span's road white house coverage continues with the republican presidential candidate. time, christern christie voted in a town hall meeting. over on c-span two. at one: 45, jeb bush campaigning and carol iowa. later, we will join ben carson for a town hall meeting in iowa city iowa where he is campaigning with the iowa senator chuck grassley. coming up on c-span, donald trump holding an event for veterans. then the discussion on the role in history of the iowa caucuses. then defense secretary ashton carter announcing changes to military maternity and paternity leave.

>> on the next washington journal, the former political columnist for the des moines register previews the presidential campaigns headed into the final weekend before the iowa caucuses. brad zahn discusses his endorsement of donald trump and his efforts to get supporters to caucus for the republican presidential candidate. plot, president and ceo of the family leader and presidential candidate ted cruz looks at the role of social conservatives in the 2016 campaign. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter.

>> c-span's campaign 2016 is taking you on the road to the white house for the iowa caucuses. on monday coverage begins at 7:00 a.m. et. figure your phone calls, tweets and texts. aere'll take you to republican caucus on c-span and the democratic caucus on c-span two. see the event live in its entirety. join the conversation on c-span radio and at c-span.org. >> republican presidential candidate donald trump spoke to voters at a campaign rally and fundraiser for veterans in iowa. fellow candidates mike huckabee and rick santorum also spoke at the event along with campaign supporters and wounded veteran advocates. this is an hour.

♪ hold me closer, tiny dancer ♪ count the headlights on the highway ♪ ♪ lay me down in sheets of linen ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, take your seats. the next president of the united states -- mr. donald j. trump. >> ♪ i have no stories to be told ♪ ♪ but i am going to make your head burn ♪ [applause] mr. trump: wow. that is so nice. thank you. there is a vet. we love our vets. thank you, everybody. sit down please. we had about 24 hours to put

this together. it was very quick. we have some special people and we will hear from some of them. i do not want to be here, i have to be honest. i wanted to be five minutes away. we have enjoyed that. the online polls have gone well, with the debate. but you have to speak up for your rights. when you are treated badly, you have to speak up for your rights. [applause] mr. trump: you have to do it. whether you like it or not, that is what our country has to do. as an example, iran. the way they have been treating us, it is one of the worst deals i have ever seen negotiated under any circumstances. we have to stick up for ourselves as people and for our country when we are being mistreated.

remember that. [applause] mr. trump: i have to go a step further and say fox has been extremely nice in the last number of hours, actually. [laughter] mr. trump: they have wanted me there and say, how about now? hasn't it already started? we actually thought we would let them start. we wanted to be 15 minutes into the hour. this is like the academy awards. [applause] mr. trump: we are told we have

more cameras than they do by quite a bit. and you know what? that is really in honor of our vets. but they have been very nice. they wanted me to go and apologize. once this started, there was nothing i could do. i do not know. is it for me personally a good thing, a bad thing? who the hell knows? but it is for our vets, and you will like it because we raised over $5 million in one day. [applause] mr. trump: so that is not so bad. my whole theme is "make america great again." that is what we are going to do. we would not have been here if not for our vets, and they are being mistreated. illegal immigrants are treated better, in many cases, than our vets. once this ball started rolling, we could not stop it. the house is packed, and this took place in less than 24 hours. i said, listen, i will not do the debates out of respect for

myself. it would just be wrong. i love iowa. i did not know we would raise $5 million. we actually raised close to $6 million, to be totally honest. and a lot more to come. we set up a site, www.donaldtrumpforvets.com. they have raised almost $5,000 just today. this money will continue to pour in. we have some incredible people. i want to call out the folks that gave a lot of the money. we will have someone come up to speak who is an incredible speaker. more importantly, who really understands what vets are going through. first, we have to talk about people who made a lot of money. if they had not made a lot of money, they would not even be here for the vets. the military has more guts than you do, right? carl icahn gave $500,000. one quick phone call.

[applause] mr. trump: a great builder in new york gave $100,000. [applause] mr. trump: donald trump, another great builder in new york, now a politician -- i cannot stand this. i do not want to be called a politician. all talk, and no action. donald trump gave $1 million. [applause] mr. trump: the fisher family of new york gave $75,000. [applause] mr. trump: howard lauber, $100,000. [applause] mr. trump: a very good friend of mine, a very good person, wants

to be anonymous for the first time in his life -- i said, can you do me a favor? give me a million bucks for this. i said, it is for the vets. he wanted to be anonymous. he has changed. you know who i'm talking about. yes? [chanting] >> trump! trump! trump! mr. trump: it is too crazy. i love protests at my rallies. we have thousands of people outside trying to get in.

we set up cameras, screens, everything. i will tell you -- i love the protesters in the big arenas because the cameras never move. they are always on my face. i say to my wife -- honey, stand up. she has to suffer through this. [applause] mr. trump: no, i go home -- and it is always on. it is not like the other politicians -- nobody covering them. i said, how did i do? she said, you were great. how many people were there? 21,000. in alabama, we had 35,000 people. by the way, we get bigger crowds by far. much bigger than bernie. though he is second. we get the biggest crowds. she said, they never show the crowd. i realized, they never turned the camera.

i said, i figured maybe they are fixed. they cannot turn around. the only way you find out they are not fixed, they are like pretzels the way you can turn them, is when you have a protester. you can have a protester up at the top, and they turn. but they do not want to show a crowd. we have a rich guy from new york who has become a little reclusive. $1 million. great guy. we have another unbelievable guy, one of the great men of our country in terms of business and talent. ike and laurie perlmutter, $1 million. [applause] mr. trump: jj cafaro from florida, and a fantastic man from cleveland. $55,000.

another friend of mine, one of the most brilliant men you will ever meet, phenomenal poker player. he does not do it for a living. you cannot make a deal with this guy and come out on top. in fact, i am thinking about him for china. how about him negotiating with china? [applause] mr. trump: you know, china this year in trade, will make over $500 billion in terms of our trade deficit. $500 billion. that is no partnership. and i am a free trader, but we have to use our heads. we use political hacks to negotiate with the chinese. i deal with them all the time. they buy my apartments for millions. i love them. i am not blaming the chinese. i am not angry at them. i am angry at our politicians because we have people that are incompetent running our country.

why should we be losing, in trade deficits, $500 billion a year? if i took a guy like this and put him in charge, mr. and mrs. phil ruffin, come on up. [applause] mr. trump: come up. [applause] mr. trump: he has never had anything -- it is like everything he touches turns to gold. you put a piece of land in las vegas. $110 million. he sold it a few years later for $1.43 billion. when he gives a million, it is like ten cents, but still very important. say a couple of words. [applause] >> thank you. i would like to introduce my wife, alexandra.

donald and i have been friends for some 18 years and business partners. a few years ago, i said if you run for president, i will give you $1 million. well, he ran, i gave him $1 million. he sent it back. he said, i cannot take your money. in any case, he is a great man. and i am very happy. my wife and i will donate $1 million to your charity. [applause] mr. trump: he actually sent me a million dollars and said, there is 10 or 20 more if you need it. i sent it back. i am self-funding my own campaign, right? but all my life, i made money. i have always been good at making money. all my life, i did well. my father always said, everything he touches turns to gold. that is why i used the same expression. but he always said, everything he touches turns to gold. i turned all this money down. they are calling and calling. being number one, they want to control you.

they want to give you money. remember i give you $5 million? remember we talked about the nabisco plant? all my life, i am turning down millions. i was in iowa at a different location. we had 4000 people. i said, listen. i do not feel good about turning down money.

my whole life, i have been greedy, greedy, greedy. but now i want to be greedy for the united states. [applause] mr. trump: i will grab all that money. i will be greedy for the united states. but i always feel guilty. the crowd is lovely.

we have the most incredible people in the country in iowa. the cover of time magazine this week is a cover story. there it is. hold that up. they have the back of my head with a massive crowd in front of me. they are covering the story. i did not even know they were doing the story. they are talking about the movement. it is actually a movement. what is happening is, i said to the crowd, let me ask you this one thing. could i take all this money? i am turning away so much money. could i take all this money? everyone went crazy, no, no, no. there was one guy in the back of the room -- a crooked-looking guy -- and he said, it is ok to take it. i do not know what to do with that guy. i feel a little bit foolish not taking the money. but you look at a guy like jeb bush. low-energy. extremely low. he is debating right now. maybe he is doing great. probably looking for me. has anyone seen trump? where is he? [applause]

mr. trump: $120 million. people i know like him, killers. they put up $8 million. they are lobbyists, special interests. they are not doing that for their health. i know most of the lobbyists. i was on the other side seven months ago. i was a big giver. i know these people. i said, believe me. when they put in $6 million, $1 million, $5 million, they want something for it. when you see these horrible deals being made, the politicians are that stupid. you say, how is it possible that iran just got $150 billion from this country? one of the dumbest deals ever. their first purchase is 114 airbus jets. not boeing. then we have france.

they go to russia and they buy missiles. people say the clock does not start ticking. we did not get our hostages back. they have $150 billion. sets a bad tone for kidnapping. who would believe what is going on? when you see that airbus gets our jets and russia gets the missiles -- which they are not supposed to be ordering -- and other things from russia, everyone is getting the money but us. when you say, "that is such a stupid deal. how can anybody be so stupid?" the reason is politicians are being taken care of by special interests that have interest

with airbus, with russia and missiles, with all of these people that are taking that $150 billion. by the way, we have mike huckabee sitting here. get up. [applause] mr. trump: great guy. santorum. where is rick? [applause] mr. trump: fellas, come up here for a second. just so you understand, these two are not in that category. they would never do a thing like that. [applause] mr. trump: stand up here. mrs. huckabee. and rick's daughter.

stand up. [chanting "u.s.a."] mr. trump: they would never have when you see deals that are so bad, believe me they are not bad for the politician, they are bad for the country, and that's why i don't take anything, i don't take anything. we will do what's right for the country. alright, ok, thank you. i heard that they did really the, these two, and who hell knows, i do not see much of it, but i said, how did they do? i think if you went back and look at the polls come you would be depressed. would you like to say a few words? mr. santorum: thank you so much. thank you. not to be offensive, but i will

stand over here so i'm not photographed with the trump sign. i'm supporting another candidate for president. that does not mean that we cannot work together when it comes to helping our veterans, which is what mike and i are here doing tonight. i grew up on ava ground. my mom and dad worked for the veterans administration for over 40 years. parents talk about how the v.a. system had degraded over time. used to be the best health care system in the world. it's not the best health care system in the world. we have an obligation to mature a veterans have the best possible health care in the world. and we can give them that by allowing every veteran to go to any hospital, get the care that they need when they need it.

we also have to say to the veterans administration, let the private sector take care of the stuff. i hope a lot of the money tonight that is raised goes to that. 22 vets per day commit suicide. 22 vets per day commit suicide because of ptsd and related mental illness. here is what i would like to do. take all that money for the v.a. and put it into making the veterans administration the center of excellence to deal with ptsd and take care of our vets with their mental health problems. [applause] santorum: i appreciate all those folks who raised money. of that towards helping our men and women who are suffering the most, and i will be happy to make sure that happens. god bless you and thank you for being here tonight. [applause]

mr. huckabee: i figure you are going to get the photo anyway. i figure i will just stand here and be dim with it. be done with it. we may be competitors in the tonighttial race, but we stand here with you. without you, there is no government. [applause] [chanting "u.s.a."] ee: in my mind i was

hearing you say, "go, huck, go." [laughter] i want to thank donald trump for allowing us to be here. thank you for asking rick santorum in me. i think he would have let any of the other candidates come. and for reasons maybe i don't understand, they are not here, some of them because they had a slot at 8:00. i had nothing to do it 8:00 tonight, so this worked great for me. but it says something about him that he would bring us here to his own event because bigger than even the election is the fact that we would not have free elections in this country if it were not for the people who stood between bullets, bombs, and our freedom. and thank you.

i want to do one simple thing tonight and then i will turn it back to donald trump. 2005, a very good friend of mine who teaches in little rock arkansas did something pretty extraordinary on the first day of school. she got permission of the principal. she had all the desks from her classroom removed. every desk taken out. the kids came in for first period and said, ms. cochran, where is our desk? she said, you do not get one until you tell me how you earn it. they said, i guess we get good grades. she said, that will not earn you a desk. another said, we will behave. she said, you will behave. but that is not how you earn it. second period, same thing.

third, fourth period. by now, kids are calling their parents and saying she has lost her mind. news organizations from little rock started coming up to joe t. robertson high school to figure out what happened to this teacher who snapped because she has taken all the desks out of her classroom. last period of the day, kids asked the same question. where are the desks? she said, you have to tell me how you earn it. none of them did. she said, i guess i am going to have to explain it to you. she walked over to the door of her classroom. she opened the door. 27 u.s. veterans wearing their uniforms from various wars walked in carrying a desk. they brought those desks in and lined them up in rows. as they did, martha cochran

said, kids, you do not have to earn your desk because these guys already did. that is why you have a school desk. that is why you have an education. and that is why you have the united states of america. god bless you and thank you. [applause] [chanting "u.s.a."] mr. trump: two amazing people. i have gotten to know them very well, being on the trail, as they say. very happy with what is going on on the trail. i have had an amazing period of time. i usually like to get up and do polls.

mike said, why do you keep doing those polls? i said, because they are so good. we have had amazing polls in iowa. we are leading by substantial margins in iowa and every single state. we are leading every national poll. [applause] mr. trump: people are tired and they are sick of what is going on in our country, how our military is being decimated. as an example tonight, you see the kind of amazing love. veterans are the most amazing people. we will take care of our veterans. i'm going to introduce somebody who will speak for a little while. he will introduce a couple of his friends. john wayne walding has become a famous person.

he should be more famous than me because he is more courageous than i am. i am financially courageous, but the other stuff, i am not so good. he spent 12 years in the united states army in the third special forces. grew up at fort bragg, north carolina. he has combat deployments to iraq and afghanistan. during his career with the third during his career with the third special forces group, the elite, best, he worked as a special forces operator with the sniper detachment and is a sniper instructor. he is a world-class marksman. his military credits include special forces, advanced urban combat, not easy. advanced sniper, special forces qualifications courses and airborne assault.

john's awards and badges include the silver star, bronze star, purple heart, combat infantry badge, air force air assault. john participated in numerous battles during his deployment. most famous of all was the battle of shok valley, which was a really tough one. the victory was brilliant, but tremendous carnage. which you can read about in the new book "no way out: a story of valor in the mountains of afghanistan." john lost a leg. he is an amazing guy.

i heard him speak once before and was so impressed, i asked him to come over and say a few words. john wayne. come on. [applause] >> thank you very much. i tell you what, i feel taller than burt reynolds getting introduced by donald trump. i'm going to keep talking. a moving target is harder to hit. in the military, we call this everybody going to sleep. want to thank you for coming out. i am not here for politics. i'm here for people. i do not care if you are republican or democrat. i care about america. i have known donald trump junior for a while. he has never asked me for one thing politically. but he has seen me in his hotel

when i was in las vegas. i was in the restaurant. me and mr. trump -- he was eating with willie robertson. really cool guy. mr. trump left. he squatted next to my table and talked to me for almost an hour. just genuinely wanted to say hi and let me know he cared about my service. so i am here for people as great as he is. i hate that many people get a bad rap. a story i know that no one knows is that donald and his wife, a long time ago, they broke down. nobody would help them.

a couple stopped and helped them with their vehicle. guess what they did? they paid their mortgage. do you ever hear about that? no. because they are people. genuine people. that is the movement everyone in america is getting onto. he is unapologetically american. that is what we are -- american. absolutely. america is the greatest thing that happened to this planet in its existence. why should i ever say i am sorry for that? mr. trump says things that may not make you feel good, but it is the better thing for this great country. that is what i care about -- the better thing for this country. now, why am i here? they told me at first i only have a little time. if you know me, getting me to talk for a little bit is as easy as finding hillary clinton's e-mails. [applause] >> so i was very pleased to hear him say i could speak to you. for that, mr. trump, thank you very much.

my name is john wayne walding. i am a green beret born on the fourth of july, and i am from texas. so you are welcome, america. [applause] >> you cannot write this. that is my true name, john wayne. really was born on the fourth of july. i asked my dad when i was 16, why did you name me that? thinking i was probably going to get this great story about how he is a great american. he said it just like this -- you needed a cool name. he was kind of a hippie, but i'm glad he stuck with it. i did 12 years in the military, the majority of that in special forces as a green beret. people did not know that the true term for green beret is special forces. that is the navy seals and

rangers and everybody else. special forces are the u.s. army green berets. one thing i did not know as a green beret while i was in, under the head of special operations, 60% of all the missions done are done by green berets. why does nobody know that? we do not write books or make movies. we do the job. a good friend of mine was chris kyle. it was always real fun when we were at a training event. you got the navy seals sniper and it is like, you suck. no, you suck. but we die the most, we get hurt the most. that is one of the things americans don't realize. we do our job. our motto is "quiet professionalism." there is a true difference between "quiet" and "silent."

the job of a green beret is we teach them to die for their country rather than us doing it. [applause] >> instead of sending 100 americans into a village to kill a bad guy, why don't we send 15 green berets in and let them do it? jfk in the 1960's actually let us have it. that is our job, and we are good at it. within 30 days of the towers falling, there were green berets in afghanistan. that is my propaganda. but ok. i lost my leg in afghanistan in

2008 in a firefight in the battle of shok valley. we were not supposed to win. if you believe in god, that is why i believe in god. there is no reason we should be alive. 15 americans went up with afghani commandos against 200 insurgents when they had the elevated position in the mountains. after 6.5 hours, 70 danger-close airstrikes, 10 silver stars, we won. [applause] how awesome is that? zero american lives killed. how can you be a taliban commander when 15 americans can go kill you? i would not do it. but that is when i lost my leg. i got shot halfway through the battle. had to put a tourniquet on my leg with the help of a green beret. during the battle, it was folded halfway over and hanging by an inch of flesh.

the alternative was to go into my groin -- i said "crotch" on international television, and i say "groin" now. that is not the end of the story. i tell everybody, you should see the other guy. that is not the end. that is the beginning. that is the beginning of me learning the word "can't." i cannot walk. i cannot walk without the help of a prosthetic leg.

let me tell you something -- that is a gut wrenching punch i hope none of you have to feel. not only as a father, but a husband and a provider for the family, when you lose that leg, that is an instant insecurity about, am i good enough? am i ok to make sure my family has food? can i still provide? three things is what made me get better. first and foremost is god. without him, we would be nothing, amen? the second thing is my wife and family. if you are watching at home, i love you, sugar. that is absolutely. my wife and family making sure i have something to look forward to at the end of the day. the third thing that made me want to fight hard is you, great americans that get it. [applause]

>> that absolutely get it. it is the americans that say those two words -- "thank you." never underestimate the magnitude of what the two words "thank you" mean to veterans. if you do not believe me, ask someone in vietnam what it is like to come back and get spit on and called a baby killer. if i lost my leg for my country and got spit on, i would be homeless, single, and have an addiction problem. those two words, that mental validation, it says it is worth it. right? everything we do, it says it is worth it. [applause] >> i like to joke and have fun. i always say that i make one-legged look good. i do not have a face for radio. but i would be lying to you if i told you it did not suck being one-legged.

it sucks not being able to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night. it sucks when your kids want to play soccer and you cannot do it because you have been working all day at your real job, trying to make some money. but it is worth it. why? because thank you. great americans that say thank you and send that little validation. that makes me not want to be a husband, but a loving husband. not just a father, but a loving and compassionate father. somebody who wants to be with them. not just a citizen, but a successful, productive citizen in society, somebody that wants to be with other americans and does not just want to be in the

prison they call home because nobody validated their sacrifice. never underestimate the magnitude of what thank you means to veterans. [applause] >> so when i hear those two words, and someone says thank you, i say you are worth it. you are worth fighting for. this is the best country to live. god bless you. [applause] >> this is awesome. all right. so when you say thank you, i say you are worth it, and i mean it. let me tell you something else, though. we lose 22 vets a day to suicide and lack of transition. when you get back, they give you a shopping cart full of drugs and say, take these. a year later, i am healed. my leg ain't growing back, i tried.

my incisions and everything, it is healed. but guess what? i still hurt every single day. fortunately, i have god, my family, and my country behind me. not everyone has that. you lose that compass. when you get out, people do not care. everybody loves you and pats you on the back, but who's going to pay the bills? i challenge you to find a veteran that has a better work ethic and better dedication than a veteran. when that compass is spinning, the insecurity builds in and becomes sadness. i call it the boo-boo lip. next comes depression. i cannot pay the bills.

four walls become a prison. i want to punch that in the mouth. i want to punch suicide in the mouth. i want to punch 22 vets comitting suicide in the mouth. [applause] >> i want to speak specifically to veterans right now. if you are having a problem and life sucks because you are one-legged or no-legged, or just a civilian, because it is we're going back to civilian life, when you see that compass spinning and you do not know what to do, you need to tell yourself you owe it to the fallen to live well. [applause] >> i have over 30 names embroidered in my center console. i knew every single one of those

names, and they are dead now. i have to stomach that. green berets, they teach you how to deal with death, but not deal with it. that is something we do not have, a coping mechanism. the 35th time you get that call saying, aaron belagio. no longer with us. or you see the casket being lowered with the american flag, and his wife is there with a three-month-old baby he has not met. do you say i am sorry? what do you say to that? it is impossible to make a statement to say, sorry for your loss. here is how you do that -- you live well for the fallen. if your life sucks, they win. right? that is something you cannot let happen.

[applause] so whenever you go out there -- i got you sleeping. yeah, i got you sleeping over there. remember, you own it to them to live well. and that is the best middle finger that you can give to the taliban. to live well. [applause] sgt. walding: so to remind myself every single day, i wear this ring right here as a symbol of the 22 who commit suicide every, single day. i want to bring up my great friend of mine. there we go. come on up here, sugar. [applause] sgt. walding: jake is the executive director of the 22

kill project. we want to punch 22 veterans committing suicide in the mouth. jake is going to come up and talk about this and then we are going to present a ring to mr. trump tonight. [applause] jake: so much america, john wayne. so much america. i love it. i can't say that i am sorry, brother. so we are wearing of these rings to bring awareness to the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide every day. all three of us were war fighters and all three of us are brothers. this is unacceptable. so at 22killed.com we let the warriors know and their families know that they are worth it and to keep fighting the good fight.

people wonder what we are the best military in the world. i will tell you why. because it is one team, one fight. we are all in it together. [applause] jake: that is why we wear these rings. this is not a fashion thing. this is a life thing. [applause] jake: so we are so proud to be here and honored to be here and i tell you right now, my brothers' work, it is gold. [applause]

jake: and with that, these honor rings mean so much to us and to highlight the fact that we lose 22 of our finest every day by their hands and together we can crush that. we can stop it. so with a that, before we do this presentation, i feel like i would be remiss if i didn't say to all of those in the audience tonight who served and family members who went through those times with them, thank you. thank you for being there and thank you for what you did. [applause]

jake: and to our vietnam veterans, welcome home -- and to vietnam veterans, welcome home, welcome home. [applause] jake: i would like to present mr. trump with his personal honor ring that we brought to you and that we hope that you wear it with pride and we can make america great again together, brother. make america great again together, brother. [applause] crowd: u.s.a!