♪ you get what you need oh, baby ♪ ♪ i saw her today at the reception n her glass was a bleeding man she was practiced at the art of deception well i could tell by her blood-stained hands ♪ ♪ you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you just might find ♪ get what you need

♪ you can't always get what you want no, no, baby you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you just might find ♪u get what you need >> donald trump speaking to supporters in portland, maine. the republican caucuses there

this saturday. democratic seahawkses in maine on sunday. opening up our phones on c-span and c-span radio. trump supporters, the line is 202-748-8920. 202-748-8921. and look for your tweets @cspan. we'll show you next mitt romney's comments from earlier today, critical of donald trump and also hillary clinton, the speech she made earlier at the university of utah in salt lake. let's go to calls now in oklahoma city, lloyd is a donald trump supporter there. lloyd, hello. oklahoma city, lloyd, you're on the air. go ahead. caller: good afternoon. thank you for taking my call. >> go ahead. caller: i am an independent registered voter. i'm a christian and i wasted my time listening to donald trump say words that meant nothing to

me and i wasted my time listening to mitt romney before him. it's -- if the republicans can't get anything better than this, as an independent i'm going to not vote for either one of them. 's just atrocious that electioneering that we're hearing this year. it's no substance of what we are going to do to get out of the mess that we're in, but it's all about trump. there was hardly a paragraph, a sentence that trump didn't say i in. i'm going to do this. no. it wasn't even that. this is what i did. it was all about him and nothing about america. it's atrocious. >> ted cruz won the oklahoma primary the other night. how did that happen? what did he do to win the state? caller: he politicked. he put the word out to the oklahomans that he was going to

do something different, that we were going to get out of the mess we're in. but part of this, the cruz backlash is outfooted. i have republican friends who didn't want to vote for trump so they voted for cruz and there were more of them in oklahoma doing that. >> all right. i misidentified as lloyd as a trump supporter. he's not. this one is in greensboro, north carolina. welcome. caller: thank you very much. i enjoy your show. i've been a democrat here in north carolina which was a strong democrat state through the 1950's and 1960's, for over 30 years and i'm just really embarrassed as to what the democrats have let this country turn into the last eight years. really embarrassed what the republicans did before that. and i'm a democrat that's going to support trump this year. i think he can get something done. i think he's proven that he's

the man to get something done. and when he speaks about i all the time, we need somebody that's going to stand up and take this country to a greater place. >> let's hear from -- thanks for the call. simba is in arkansas on our others line. hello, there. go ahead. caller: yes. 'm a 63-year-old retired criminal fraud investigator. i was actually -- did 25 years of state service in the state of arizona. i current currently reside in arkansas. donald so against trump it's -- you know, it's hard to put the words there. i think he's a criminal. we have our doubts about hillary clinton with the fraud that i think she's committed on her emails but donald trump is not a good businessman. he's a phony. he's a con artist.

he has mob connections. in that fake college, there is 5,000 people that paid him approximately $35,000 each. i added that up. that's $175 million he paid -- >> you're talking about the trump university? caller: yes, i am. i'm sorry if i'm a little nervous being on air. >> no, that's great. caller: that's what i'm speaking about. that is a massive amount of fraud. 5,000 people were possibly injured in that. and he's hired illegals, the polish people that he hired illegally ended up having to sue him and they got out away with $5 an hour, something. >> well, in his nearly hour-long speeches, donald trump did talk about some of the accusations leveled against him by mitt romney, including the accusation about trump university. donald trump talked about some of the typical things he talks about in his campaign speeches,

about china and trade, about mexico and the military and more. we're going to show you mitt romney's comments in just a bit here and show you all of trump's rally in portland that just wrapped up. 202-748-8920 for trump supporters. 202-748-8921. c-span, we don't need the running strong men our country. mitt romney made valid points, but i downtown trump supporters actually heard any of the content. these attacks will continue to fail. i don't vote for irnorans but i will vote for bringing our nation as one. vote clinton. she'll make american great again. becky is a trump supporter. caller: i am a trump supporter.

i've been following mr. trump since the late 1970's. i'm 73 years old. i was in louisville tuesday at the trump rally, and what i can see and what i can say is people are enthusiastic. people who come out are enthusiastic. very few people who put up nasty signs and they escort him out and all that kind of stuff, but the people that are in there are young people. they're old people. there are people in wheelchairs. there's hispanics. everybody is excited and they want a difference. i am ashamed of mitch mcconnell. i think he's done nothing but horrible things. i voted him every time he was up and voted for him since the early 1970's. it's wrong what they're doing now. i hope and pray that tonight things will come out clearer and people will be able to see a different side of him because he does make you feel it when

you're around him and you want to be a part of it. >> let's hear from the west coast from portland and this is ely on our others line. caller: yes, hi. thank you for taking my call, c-span. thankful for what you do. i am quite -- i'm not surprised at all of trump's rise. the information that most of us iew go out of their way to misinform us. and so we're dealing with the extremely uninformed electorate. if you look at the polls and polls, ng out, the exit nd apply that to the information we received based on age, the age groups it seems

as if those watching network television are the ones that are, well, voting for hillary clinton or -- hillary clinton, to be more specific. i think trump and cruz, they se a political tactic to identify with a certain group. i see that group being caucasian, christian and constitutionalists. you have those three c's very much -- it's a certain block of people. it seems people under 35, 40, get most of their information online, have much more access to information. 2007 youtube only had -- was only around two years at the time. a year and a half, i believe when hillary clinton started her first campaign.

now with the evolution that's happened on social media, information is, well, as you know, at c-span with the twitter and facebook instantaneous. and so we have quite a bit of information available to us today, our generation. >> eli mentioned facebook and that's for your call. after the mitt romney speech this morning or mid-day today, sarah palin, who's come out to endorse, rather, donald trump, posted this on facebook. i'll read just a bit of it. she says, donald trump, don't take the bait. the machines, the nonsensical attack on trump isn't really an attack on candidates. it's an attack on conscientious, hardworking, patriotic americans who know we need a revolution to stop the complicit politician who is are fundamentally transforming america. we go next to trump supporter

in las vegas. his is john. hey, john, go ahead. caller: how's it going? >> doing fine. go ahead. caller: well, i'm a long-term construction worker here in las vegas and i lost my job a few months ago after my company told me that they were having a reduction in the work force. come to find out i was replaced by a mexican. i'm not racist. my best friend is a mexican, but here in las vegas you can't get a job if you are an american because the companies here, there are hundreds of thousands of mexicans here with work permits. the companies do not have to give them medical benefits. >> if you know that got -- is that guy replacing you, you mentioned medical benefits, is he making less than you would have made? caller: i imagine he's making more because they put him in a management position. i had been there for exactly six months the day they got rid of me and he told me from the day he started i had nothing to

worry about. two weeks later i was out of a job. i found out from some of my friends that worked there they brought in all kinds of spanish guys. there's probably 50 of them that work in the field. and here in las vegas, i am surrounded by work. you can't walk out my front door without walking onto a jobsite and you won't find one american working out there. >> couple more of your calls. we want to let you know of our coverage plans. the conservative political action conference, cpac is under way outside our nation's capital and our coverage on c-span will continue tomorrow beginning at 1:15 with a couple of presidential candidates. john kasich and ted cruz and ben carson is expected to speak more about that tomorrow at cpac. again, that's live. then on saturday we'll show you donald trump's speech at cpac and at 1:15 live coverage of marco rubio. senator rubio speaking to the gathering at 11:35 a.m. eastern. joyce is up next.

she's on other others line in lexington, south carolina. caller: hey. how you doing? >> great. caller: mr. trump is bragging about how much money he has. he has this, he has that. what about those who live off of $733 social security? will he send some of the money he has to us social security or is he going to -- how is he going to fund it? is he going to cut it out? he has all this money. why doesn't he share it with some people who need it? let's see if he can send poor joyce who lives off of $733 in south carolina, how would he feel about sending me $1,000? would he do that or is he just talking all big? how about telling he's got my phone number and i live off of $733. let's see if he will be heartful enough to send me some money so i can live.

>> well, let's hear from a trump supporter next from kentucky. monticello. this is penny. hello there. caller: hello. how are you doing today, sir? >> great. thank you. caller: i'm a trump supporter. everybody has their opinion. they need to stand and sit back and listen to each individual politician what they stand for. people can run their mouths on there and say this and that and that and this, but if you sit back and listen what they have to say -- and yeah, he said i, i, i. but he's asked no money from nobody. he has done his own complete -- he hasn't asked no support from nobody as far as money-wise and as far as $733, i live on $783 a month. i am disabled out of the state of kentucky. >> right. caller: i'm on food stamps. that's the way it is. but i mean, obama in the last eight years caused that for me. he caused a lot to my family.

each individual person needs to vote for who they want to i vote for donald trump because he stands for the people. he's not a career politician. he doesn't stand up there and act like he's better than everybody else that everybody is saying that's begins him. he's for us. he's trying to help us, not hinder us. yeah, he has mistake in his life. who hasn't? like the woman said early and the bible belt. those who stand -- we all made mistakes in this world. they need to quit condemning. i didn't appreciate what donald trump said about romney either. i think did he wrong too. i think romney run his mouth and he asked money from him. he needs to run his -- quit running his mouth too you need to say the facts, how they're going to help the country instead of what the other person does wrong. that's the way i feel. i mean, i love what you guys stand for. you guys -- you guys are for both and i appreciate what you guys stand for. you're a wonderful station.

i listen to you all the time. >> glad to have you there. thanks for that. los angeles, next up, this is lo who is on our others line. caller: hello. thanks for taking our call. >> sure. caller: yeah. i do like c-span as well. i do like to say it's really unfortunate that the average american voter looks up to trump and most people for what they can get. they see him with a lot of money. they think he's going to bring them a lot of money. he even tells us that. we all want a job. we all want to exist. but everyone is thinking very selfishly. no one has patriotism anymore. no one believes in god anymore. no one believes in saving the babies or defending life. everything they say is only to get money. so it's very unfortunate. and so basically we're going to get the leader we deserve. you know how it goes. thank you. >> who's the leader that you think we deserve? caller: it would have been

carley fiorina and rand paul as v.p. and vice president. >> all right. we appreciate your call all of them and more. let you know our coverage plans. we're going to show you next the mitt romney speech from salt lake and show you again the entire news conference, rally today in portland, maine, from donald trump. next up, though, mitt romney at the university of utah in salt ake. mr. romney: thank you, jason. thank you to the hinckley institute. it's good to be with you today. thank you. [cheers and applause] mr. romney: i'm not here to announce my

candidacy for office. and i'm not going to endorse a candidate today. instead, i'd like to offer my perspective on the nominating process of my party. back in 1964, just days before the presidential election, which incidentally we lost, r ronald reagan went on national television and challenged america saying that it was a time for choosing. he saw two paths for america. one that embraced conservative principles dedicated to lifting people out of poverty and helping create opportunity for all.

and the other, an oppressive government that would lead america down a darker, less free path. i'm no ronald reagan. and this is a different moment in time. but i believe with all my heart and soul that we face another time for choosing. one that will have profound consequences for the republican party, and more importantly, for our country. i say this in part because of my conviction that america is poised to lead the world for another century. our technology engines, our innovation dynamic, the ambition and skill of our people are going to propel our economy and raise the standard of living of americans. america will remain as it is today, the envy of the world. you may have seen warren buffett. he said, and i think he's 100% right, that the babies being born in america today are the luckiest crop in history. that doesn't mean we don't have real problems and serious challenges. we do. at home poverty persists and wages are stagnant. the horrific massacres of paris and san bernardino, the nuclear ambitions of the iranian mullahs, the aggressions of putin, the growing assertiveness of china and the nuclear tests of north korea confirm that we live in troubled and dangerous times.

but if we make the right choices, america's future will be even better than our past and better than our present. n the other hand, if we make improvident choices, the bright choice horizon i've described will not materialize. and let me put it very plainly. if we republicans choose donald trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished. let me explain why i say that. first, on the economy. if donald trump's plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession. a few examples. his proposed 35% tariff-like penalties would instigate a trade war and that would raise prices for consumers, kill our export jobs, and lead entrepreneurs and businesses of all stripes to flee america. his tax plan, in combination with his refusal to reform

entitlements, and to honestly address spending, would balloon the deficit and the national debt. so even though donald trump has offered very few specific economic plans, what little he has said is enough to know that he would be very bad for american workers and for american families. but you say, wait, wait, wait. isn't he a huge business success? doesn't he know what he's talking about? no, he isn't. and no, he doesn't. cheers and applause] look, his bankruptcies have crushed small businesses. and the men and women who work for them. he inherited his business. he didn't create it. and whatever happened to trump airlines? how about trump university? and then there's trump magazine. and trump vodka. and trump steaks. and trump mortgage.

a business genius he is not. now, not every policy that donald trump has floated is bad, of course. he wants to repeal and replace obamacare. he wants to bring jobs home from china and japan. but his prescriptions to do those things are flimsy at best. at the last debate, all he could remember about his health care plan was to remove insurance boundaries between states. successfully bringing jobs home requires serious policy and reforms that make america the place businesses want to come, want to plant and want to grow. you can't punish business into doing what you want. frankly, the only serious policy proposals that deal with a broad range of national challenges we confront today come from ted cruz, marco rubio and john kasich. [cheers and applause] one of these men should be our nominee. now, i know that some people want this race to be over. they look at history and say, a

trend like mr. trump's isn't going to be stopped. perhaps. but the rules of political history have pretty much all by shredded during this campaign. if the other candidates can find some common ground, i believe we can nominate a person who can win the general election and who will represent the values and policies of conservatism. given the current delegate selection process, that means that i'd vote for marco rubio in florida and for john kasich in ohio and for ted cruz or any one of the other two contenders has a better chance of beating mr. trump in any given state. let me turn to national security and the safety of our homes and loved ones. mr. trump's bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies. insulting all muslims will keep many of them from fully engaging with us in their urgent fight against isis. and for what purpose?

muslim terrorists would only have to lie about their religion to enter the country. and then what he said about -- on "60 minutes," did you hear this? it was about syria and isis. and it has to go down as the most ridiculous and dangerous idea of the entire campaign season. let isis take out assad, he said. and then we can pick up the remnants. now, think about that. let the most dangerous terror organization the world has ever known take over an entire country? this recklessness is recklessness in the extreme. now, donald trump tells us that he's very, very smart. [laughter] i'm afraid that when it comes to foreign policy, he is very, very not smart. cheers and applause] now, i'm far from the first to

conclude that donald trump lacks the temperament to be president. after all, this is an individual who mocked a disabled reporter. who attributed a reporter's questions to her menstrual cycle. who mocked a brilliant rival who happened to be a woman due to her appearance. who bragged about his marital affairs. and who laces his public speeches with vulgarity. donald trump says he admires vladimir putin, at the same time he's called george w. bush liar. that is a twisted example of evil trumping good. [applause] there's a dark irony in his boasts of his sexual exploits during the vietnam war. while at the same time john mccain, whom he has mocked, was imprisoned and tortured. dishonesty is donald trump's hallmark.

he claimed that he had spoken clearly and boldly against going into iraq. wrong. he spoke in favor of invading iraq. he said he saw thousands of muslims in new jersey celebrate -- celebrating 9/11. wrong. he saw no such thing. he imagined it. he's not of the temperament of the kind of stable, thoughtful person we need as a leader. his imagination must not be married to real power. the president of the united states has long been the leader of the free world. the president and, yes, even the nominees of the country's great parties helped define america to billions of people around the world. all of them bear the responsibility of being an example for our children and our grandchildren. think of donald trump's ersonal qualities. the bullying, the greed, the

showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third grade theatrics. you know, we've long referred to him as the donald. he's the only person in the entire country to whom we have added an article before his name. and it wasn't because he had attributes we admired. [laughter] imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does. would you welcome that? haven't we seen before what happens when people in prominent positions fail the basic responsibility of honorable conduct? we have. and it always injures our families and our country. watch, by the way, how he responds to my speech today. cheers and applause]

will he talk about our policy differences? or will he attack me with every imaginable low-road insult? this may tell you what you need to know about his temperament, his stability and his suitability to be president. now, mr. trump relishes any poll that reflects what he thinks of himself. but polls are also saying that he will lose to hillary clinton. hink about that. on hillary clinton's watch, the state department, when she was guiding it and part of the obama administration, that state department watched as america's interests were diminished at every corner of the world. she compromised our national secrets. she dissembled to the families of the slain. and she jettisoned her most profound beliefs to gain presidential power. for the last three decades, the clintons have lived at the intersection of money and politics, trading their political influence to enrich their personal finances.

they embody the term crony capitalism. it disgusts the american people and causes them to lose faith in our political process. a person so untrustworthy and dishonest as hillary clinton must not become president. [cheers and applause] of course a trump nomination enables her victory. and the audio and video of the infamous tapper-trump exchange on the ku klux klan will play 100,000 times on cable and who knows how many million times on social media. there are a number of people who claim that mr. trump is a con man. a fake.

>> we love mitt! mr. romney: thank you. cheers and applause] let me say that again. there's plenty of evidence that mr. trump is a con man, a fake. mr. trump has changed his positions not just over the years, but over the course of the campaign. and on the ku klux klan daily for three days in a row. we will only real know if he's the real deal or a phony if he releases his tax returns and the tape of his interview with the "new york times." i predict that there are more bombshells in his tax returns. i predict that he doesn't give much, if nigged, to the disabled and to our veterans. i predict that he told "the new york times" that his immigration talk is just that -- talk. and i predict that despite his promise to do so, first made

over a year ago, that he will never, ever release his tax returns. never. not the returns under audit, not even the returns that are no longer being audited. he has too much to hide. nor will he authorize the release of the tapes that he made with "the new york times." if i'm right, you'll have all the proof you need to know that donald trump is indeed a phony. attacking me as he surely will won't prove him any less of a phony. it's entirely in his hands to prove me wrong. all he has to do is release his back taxes like he promised he would and let us hear what he said behind closed doors to "the new york times." you know, ronald reagan used to quote a scottish philosopher who predicted that democracies and civilizations wouldn't last much longer than a couple hundred years. and john adams wrote this.

remember, democracy never lasts long. it soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. that's john adams. i believe that america has proven these dire predictions wrong for two reasons. first, we've been blessed with great presidents, with giants among us, men of character, integrity and selflessness have led our nation from the very beginning. none were perfect. each surely made mistakes. but in every case they acted out of the desire to do what was right for america. and for the cause of freedom. the second reason is because we're blessed with a great people. people who a at every critical moment of tchoozing -- choosing have put the interests

of the country above their own. these two things are related. our presidents time and again have called on us to rise to he occasion. john f. kennedy asked us to consider what we could do for our country. lincoln drew upon the better angels of our nature to save the union. i understand the anger americans feel today. in the past, our presidents have channeled that anger and forged it into resolve, into endurance and high purpose and into the will to defeat the enemies of freedom. our anger was transformed into energy directed for good. mr. trump is directing our anger for less than noble purposes. he creates scapegoats of muslims and mexican immigrants. he calls for the use of torture. he calls for killing the innocent children and family members of terrorists. he cheers assaults on protesters. he applauds the prospects of twisting the constitution to

limit first amendment freedom of the press. this is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss. here's what i know. donald trump is a phony. a fraud. his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. cheers and applause] he's playing the members of the american public for suckers. he gets a free ride to the white house. and all we get is a lousy hat. his domestic policies would lead to recession. his foreign policies would make america and the world less safe. he has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president, and his personal qualities would mean that america would cease to be a shining city on a

hill. i'm convinced america has greatness ahead and this is a time for choosing. god bless us to choose a nominee who will make that vision a reality. thank you and god bless you all. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> and about two hours after mitt romney speaking in utah, donald trump held a campaign rally in portland, maine, where he responded to the 2012 presidential nominee. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org] donald trump: thank you, thank you so much. what a turnout. what a turnout. wow. wow! [cheers and applause] mr. trump: thank you.

i want to thank paul. i love tough people. you need tough people and he's a tough cookie. and when we got his endorsement, we were thrilled, i tell you that. he is a great guy. you know, i was doing a little bit of a thing called the crowd chanting] donald trump: get them out, please. et them out. what are they doing? what's the purpose? i guess a little television time, i guess. plus, you know, i was going to the debate and i was going directly in florida and doing really well in florida. and campaigning against the guy who has the worst voting record in the history of the state of florida named rubio.

he's a -- i call him lightweight. he's a lightweight. got the worst record in the history of florida. i don't know. i should do well there. let's hope i do well there. i love florida. but i was going to detroit and i said to my people, i have to stop in maine. felt so -- [cheers and applause] donald trump: so i wouldn't say that it's a very direct route, would you say. instead of going this way, i went this way and this way and that is good. i'm so glad. and you know, to put -- to put this incredible soldout crowd and you have thousands of people outside, to put this crowd together in a period of what, 24 hours? [cheers and applause] donald trump: and maine is amazing. maine is one of the most beautiful places on earth and people don't realize how large your land mass is. i was talking to paul. as large as all of new england when you think of it. that's some piece of land.

can i buy some, please? can i buy some? [cheers and applause] donald trump: so, you know, i've been watching with great interest as we go down the line. we have some amazing results. right with new hampshire, it was an amazing and incredible thing. by the way, every single time i went to new hampshire, whenever i met with people, they'd always say number one problem, number one problem, heroin. umber one problem. and i would say, how is that possible? you look at the beautiful fields and beautiful little roads and everything is so beautiful and it was the number one problem and comes from our southern border and we are going to close up that border and going to build a wall and stop the drugs from coming in. believe me. [cheers and applause] donald trump: we're going to stop. and people are going to come into our country but going to come in legally. going to come in legally. but we're going to solve the problem. you know, i watch these pundits and when i first start, my wife melania, we came down the

escalator and it was amazing. i said we have to do something because we have people who don't know what they are doing, don't know what they are doing in running our country. and i got some of that today. just in hearing some of these things. but they don't know what they're doing. and it takes guts to run for president. i'm not a politician. i'm not a politician. all talk, no action, nothing gets down. and anyway, we're coming down and i said to myself, you know, there are so many things and i watched the pundits and they said, trump, i don't know, we have some debate talent running and i'm trying to figure out where. where? what's the talent? what's the talent? you come down and do you it and you start talking about trade and see what happens with trade. trade has been such a disaster. but the pundits all said, i came out at 3%, first one. my wife said if you run, you are going to win. you can't say you are going to

run, even if they call it, people still say you aren't going to run. if you run, you are going to win. she's my pollster. i pay her less money. she's better than the -- so you know what happened? i started at three first day or something. i started at three which i wasn't exactly thrilled about and went up to six, 12, 18 and kept going up and every time i went up, they would say he was plateaued. we'll, he's always going to get six. that's a six solid group. then i went up to 12. well, you know, that's a solid group. then i went up to 24. and he said -- don't forget. that's with 17 people. that's a lot. 24 with 17 people is pretty good. so we went up to 24. and they said that's the max and there can't go anymore. nd then went up to 28, 32. cnn just came out with a poll. trump, 49. that's high.

[cheers and applause] donald trump: that's high. and i'm very proud of it, because this isn't a plateau but a movement. we have a movement going on, folks. "time" magazine did a story recently, a couple of weeks ago talking about what's going on and never seen anything like it. people have never seen anything like it. people say -- and i don't think i'm exaggerating at all but many of the great writers of which there are very few because the media is among the most dishonest people i ever dealt with but they said, they said that in the history of this country, there's never been anything like this what's happening. we were in huntsville, alabama, the other day. we had 35,000 people. 35,000 people. we were -- we went to arkansas which you saw we won. as that another one? get them out. get them out. they just don't stop. get them out. thank you. bye-bye. bye-bye. terrible. incredible.

now you know, you can be nice but if you're nice they say you're so soft. but then you can be vicious and they say, get out of here. so i developed a -- all right, please get them out. [cheers and applause] donald trump: it's i credible. -- it's incredible. i love you, too. i love you, too. i love you, too. and by the way, you know, i'm self-funding my campaign and putting up my own money. but you have to do -- i don't want your money, i just want one thing, your vote on saturday. get out and vote. [cheers and applause] donald trump: don't forget, i did that big long turn, slightly long. did the big turn. so you can get out to vote, ok. [cheers and applause] donald trump: so thank you. thank you very much. so our country and our theme is

make america great again. and over the last little while, i've met so many people, thousands and thousands and thousands of people. we have like this. this -- we're only confined by the size of the room. this is packed but this is the size of the room. thousands and thousands of great, great americans, and i have more confidence in this country now than i ever had before. i have seen -- i mean millions of people, really, because when you get 35,000, 40,000 people for rallies and we have by far the biggest rallies. i will say that. and bernie is second. he's second but he's a distant second but he is second. i have to give him credit for that. but we have by far the biggest, and i see by far the most people and this country has unbelievable people that love our country. just remember that. [cheers and applause] donald trump: and i want to see the day in the not too distant future when apple makes their iphones in this country and not in china and all of these other countries.

[cheers and applause] donald trump: now, i heard, and i saw just a little bit of it but i heard that mitt romney made a fairly long speech. [audience booing] donald trump: and honestly, i'll just address it quickly because it's irrelevant. look, mitt is a failed candidate. he failed. he failed horribly. the third -- [inaudible] donald trump: he failed badly. that was a race i have to say, folks, that should have been won. that was a race that absolutely should have been won. and i don't know what happened to him. he disappeared. he disappeared. and i wasn't happy about it, i'll be honest, because i'm not a fan of barack obama and that was a race that i backed mitt romney. i backed him. you can see how loyal he was. he was begging for my endorsement. i could have said, mitt, drop to your knees, he would have dropped to his knees.

he was begging. he was begging me. and did you see how -- he said, oh, i'm not big like him or he's the great businessman and all that stuff. and since then, i've done much better. but we'll talk about it in a second. mitt was thinking about running again. he ran a horrible campaign. it was a campaign that never should have been lost. you are running against a failed president. he came up with 47%, he demeaned 47% of the people in our country, right? the famous 47%. once that was said, i'll be honest, once that was said, a lot of people thought it was over for him. then, the last month and a half, he disappeared. i called his people and said you have to do yourself a favor. obama, say what you want, he was on jay leno and david letterman. he was all over the place in the last three, four weeks. mitt was looking for zoning for nine-car garages. up in california.

who cares about a garage? you're running for president. and mitt was a disaster as a candidate. so what happened, and it was very strong and i think if the press goes back, they'll see it. when i heard he was running again and i wasn't sure i was going to be running, but i was very, very strong to mitt and to everybody, because i didn't want to talk to him. i was so disappointed, because he let us down. he let us down. you know, it's one thing you lose and you work and you work. he let us down. he should have won. something happened to him. he went away. he was gone. he was horrible in the third debate. it was a horrible -- something happened. i don't know what happened. maybe someday they'll write a book. his campaign guy was terrible, terrible. he had a terrible campaign manager who's always on television. stuart stevens. he's always on television knocking everybody. he ran one of the worst campaigns in the history of modern politics. and mitt ran probably was the worst run that most people have

seen because most people thought that the republican candidate would win. so when mitt started raising his head a few months ago, i was very strong. i said, mitt romney should not run. he's a choke artist and i said it very strongly. i wanted to keep him in, and then jeb bush actually convinced mitt not to run. can you imagine, jeb, jeb sold him. jeb, he is a good salesman. jeb is a good salesman. he's a high-energy salesman. but mitt was afraid of jeb because because he was afraid that jeb would get the money and jeb would get whatever. i wasn't afraid. i wasn't afraid of jeb. i can tell you that. so what happened is jesh bush convinced mitt not to run. mitt was going to run. it was going to be a third attempt. the second one being one of the great catastrophes. the first one didn't happen and that's ok but the second was a catastrophe but what happened s he went to see jeb and he

convinced he has the money and hit chickened out. i'll tell you the real reason he chickened out, it was me. if you remember mitt was all set to run. i know this from people that are close to him and i think he has a desire maybe at the convention to get some kind of a thing. hillary clinton will destroy him. in the election. assuming she's allowed to run, assuming she's not arrested for the email situation. [cheers and applause] donald trump: this is so terrible. which is so terrible. i mean, so terrible. but let's assume that the democrats are going to protect her, let's assume that i will be running against hillary. i really want to. i would love to run against hillary. [cheers and applause] donald trump: and by the way, we have numerous polls that show me beating her easily and i haven't even started on her yet other than four weeks ago i did. remember, she called me sexist and i hit her with the husband and that was the last time i

ever heard the word sexist. so that was it. they had a rough weekend. that was a rough weekend. bill was not happy. i guarantee you, he said don't you ever say that to him again. say it to somebody else, but not to trump. that was a rough, rough weekend they had. but mitt was going to run as sure as you're standing here. sorry we didn't get -- but he was going to run and i was very, very angry that he was going to run. i didn't know i was going to be this, but i felt i wanted to. you know, nbc came to me. hey wanted to extend "the apprentice" for two seasons, 26 episodes. steve burke came up to me with the people of nbc, please, donald, we would like you to do "the apprentice. do "the apprentice." the ratings after 14 seasons were still fantastic. they were still great. and i said, steve, i think i'm going to run for president. no.

no. no you're not. they didn't want me to because the show does great. and ultimately i decided to run. and you're not allowed by law, with quam time laws, you're not allowed to do both. and we chose arnold schwarzenegger. how would he -- who would be better, arnold or trump? arnold? trump? well, we're going to find out if arnold is quick because if he's not quick, and you have omorosa, you have to be quick. i hope he does well. i hope arnold does well. i was going to do that. i mean, they renewed the show with me in the upfronts and i just -- i just said i can't do it. i'm not going to do it. i gave up a lot of deals, i gave up a lot of things. to do this takes a lot of effort. those are the people trying to get in. can you believe it? how about everybody clear out and let a new group come in? no? so anyway, when i heard mitt

was going to run, a little before this period of time, i was very tough. i said he can't run. he can't run. he was going to run. he can't run. then i started to say, look, we have to keep him out because he's going to lose. he's a choke artist. he's an absolute -- people say, why did you hit him so hard? because we can't take another loss. we can't take another loss. and mitt is indeed a choke artist. he choked and he choked like i've never seen anyone choked other than rubio when chris christie was grilling him. that was one of the great chokes. rubio of florida, that was one of the great chokes i've ever seen. he was standing there shaking and sweating. i'm getting ready to grab him because i thought he was going down. i'm telling you. but mitt did a big, big choke. and we had to keep him out. a couple of things i heard he said. first of all, he doesn't mention the fact that i built a city on the west side of

manhattan or built buildings all over manhattan and talking about a beef and water company. which by the way i still have. i supply all my clubs with the water. numerous those things. he magazine, other things. get them out of here. get them out. get them out. and by the way, speaking of mexico, i won the hispanic vote by far in nevada, right? [cheers and applause] donald trump: we won -- we won the hispanic vote in nevada in the polls. during the -- we won nevada, we won south carolina, new hampshire and then the big, big tuesday where we won a tremendous number. and i have to tell you this. so ultimately mitt chickened out and now he's saying, hillary is very weak. and he is saying, oh, i wish i did. but ultimately he didn't. he would have gotten beaten very badly. but i tell you what, a couple

of things were mentioned that we have to discuss. first of all when he talks about me, i wrote a couple of them down. when he talks about me -- they don't want to talk about 92-story buildings all over the place, they don't want to talk about the bank of america building in san francisco, 1290 avenue of the americas. they don't want to talk about the west side railroad yards where i built a city on the west side of manhattan. they don't want to talk about 40 wall street but want to talk about water, which i still have. i supply all my clubs. i have a water company. they want to talk about a magazine and i have a magazine that goes to all my clubs. little tiny thing. wherever you can find. by the way, a school, little deal, but i loved it when it was there, trump university, trump initiative, but i will tell you, just so you understand the school, the school had 98% approval rating. but you had an attorney that felt, oh, maybe i can sue trump and get something. the school had a 98% -- in other words, 98% of the people

that took the courses we signed report cards. that's why you can't settle a case. you put somebody up in the stand, did you right this -- the most beautiful thing. they did a commercial that took it down where two people were saying negatives and we showed statement that they wrote, they had to take the commercial down because 98% of the people that took the courses said really wonderful things about it. it got an a from the better business bureau. so i say, how do i settle a case like this? b-plus would be ok, too. b-plus would be ok but we did better than a b-plus. so i can't -- and here's one thing i say about business. i watch these bankers and they get millions of dollars a year. $40 million, $50 million -- frankly, they're ridiculous. and they'll settle with the government if they're sued for $2 billion, $5 billion, $12 billion. i say why dont you fight it? they say, well, it's the government. i don't want to fight it.

i say, you got to fight it, if you don't fight it, someone is going to sue you. next week they get sued again. you have to fight these things out. you have to do what's out. -- right. so with the university, i knew i could get some bad publicity but i have to do what's right. do we agree with that, by the way? it's a very small case, civil case. it's not a big deal. and i'm going to win it in court and it will cost me more money to win it in court than i could settle, in my opinion. but i will win it in court. i say, it's lousy timing because too busy it wasn't later because i happen to be running for president. but i have other suits too. any business man or woman has lawsuits. people sue to get their money back, they sue for this and sue for a million different reasons. so just to understand, 98% approval rating, a from the better business bureau. we are going to win the case. mark it down, we're going to win the case. it will be forever because it takes forever. but that's the way it is. i don't like to settle cases. i don't like to it because once

you settle cases, everybody says he is a settler, let's sue. that's not me. a lot of people don't sue me because they say it's too hard. [cheers and applause] donald trump: so one of the things -- one of the things that mitt brought up, which i think is so serious, he said about trade. we have to keep trade -- nobody knows more about trade than me. i made so much more money than mitt. you know, i have a store that's worth more money than mitt. it's a store. and actually it was funny because i made that statement jokingly when i was in iowa and "the dimy register," a paper that's actually a terrible paper, to tell you the truth. they called up and said, oh, that's a terrible statement. that's a terrible statement for you to make that statement and the people put me on and they say you have a store that's worth more than mitt. let's say mitt is worth $100 million, $200 million. how much is he worth $150 million. the gucci store is worth much

more. we don't believe a store is worth $150 million. go ahead, go get a couple -- they got three appraisers and they said, you know, that store is worth $400 million to $1.2 billion. by the way, this isn't me talking. you can go check your local "des moines register" if it's still open. i'm not sure it's still open. but anyway, i built an amazing company. and you know, one of the reasons you know it's amazing. the hottest development, the hottest development site probably in the history of the general services administration, the g.s.a., that's the government service, is the old post office site. that's where the post office is built in washington, d.c. entire block fronting on pennsylvania avenue. in other words, if i don't get there through the white house i'm getting there anyway, ok, folks. and fronting on pennsylvania avenue. one of the most beautiful buildings in the country, incredible, landmark building and the g.s.a. for many, many

years has owned it and they wanted to develop it for 30 years, 35 years and it just sort of never worked out. big job. never happened. then they went to bid and on bidding it they had morbiders and more high level bidders i think than they ever had before. so let's assume just about, it's just about the hottest job that they've ever put out to bid. every hotel company wanted it. i actually got a bid. build a 300-room super, super luxury hotel. everybody wanted it. so they went out to a public bid and one of the things in choosing the bidder was how strong is the bidder and how good is the bidder's idea. well, they loved my idea because what we're going to do -- serious. this will be one of the great hotels of the world. it is now two years ahead of schedule. it's going to open in september. we're supposed to open up in september in two years. we're two years ahead of schedule. and by the way, the g.s.a. people are terrific people. we're underbudget a little bit. the fact we're only underbudget is i'm using marble instead of

terazza. not a bad idea. etc. a lot of different things. we're going super end. the highest end. and the reason i was chosen, number one, my financial statement was so strong it could guarantee completion because they didn't want a mess where they built 25% and it goes out of business and number two, we had the best idea. so when i listen to this mitt -- when i listen to this myth and this is in the obama administration. i wouldn't say i had an advantage. i said to my daughter and she was very much involved with that, i said maybe, maybe we aren't going to get it. but my financial statement is so strong and i put it in -- romney talks about taxes. taxes maybe this. very little do you learn from taxes. you can't learn very much. but i did file almost 100 pages of financial statements with the federal elections and it shows that i have a net worth that could be over $10 billion, probably over. and i don't do that in a ragging way.

i tell you because that's the kind of thinking we need. we have $19 trillion was -- paul was saying. $19 trillion in debt. i have very low debt and tremendous cash flow. and i found my financials. he said maybe there is something in his tax return. but i get audited every single year and because the company is so big, fortune 500 companies every year. because my company is so big or some of the reason which is unfair. let's leave it at that. hey audit me every year. i think it's unfair. but i have been audited every year for many years. i have nothing -- and nobody in this room would say you are being audited.

you get audited and finish up the audit, routine stuff and release the tax returns. if hit would like to go down to the federal election office you will see 100 pages of financials that were filed ahead of schedule. i could have delayed it for six months. i filed them for 30 days and i had to work with the accountants and they worked overtime because i didn't want them saying he is asking for extensions. so with hit, i just wanted to tell you, he came out, it was very nasty. i thought he was a better person than that. i helped him. i raised money for his campaign and two fundraisers for him. the first one was so successful that we had the second one that same day. his wife which is a really lovely woman. she came up and had a undraiser in my apartment at trump tower. i did a great job. they couldn't have cared less. they said donald, he is a stiff, he's not going to win. i should have listened to the guy. but we had a fundraiser and it

was so big and raining out, i won't forget about this. it was a miserable, miserable day and people came in, hundreds of people phase one and said there's too many people to put them in one and called for another one after. and because everybody's shoes were so wet, i ruined my arpet. this carpet was wiped out and nobody thanked me for the carpet. maybe i could send hit a bill for carpet ruined. when you help somebody, when you help somebody, i made six robot calls. every single place i made, he won. north carolina. six different places. you helped somebody and then he turns. now, i will say this. i will say this. i will say this. he probably had a right to turn, because nobody could have been nass nastier than me.

and the reason i said that. i love our country too much. if he would have run and even if he would have won, it would have been bad. he doesn't have what it takes to be president. he doesn't have what it takes to be president. so i do want to mention one thing because it worked so well because his speech was so long and covered a lot of territory. he didn't mention the many buildings and building over 120 jobs all over the world. we just got turnberry and doral and they are having the world championship today in florida nd im in maine. rory and everybody is down there. and tiger is going down there.

but they're all there. all at my place and here i am making a speech in maine, k. so if i don't win on saturday, i'll say boy, was a mistake. any way, i think we will. he talked about trade. talked domestic. bye-bye. bye-bye. bye-bye. get them out. et them out. i love you, too. hese people. i tell you what, your police are fantastic. do we love our police? cheers and applause] mr. trump: where would we be without them in all fairness? they are so abused and one stupid incident or bad incident or one bad person, which happens out of the whole country and it's the biggest story in the news and it plays forever and people don't realize how great a job the police of this country do, i

have to tell you. so one of the things that hit was talking about was domestic policy and we need trade and we need trade and we have to deal with china and deal with all these people, look. last year in terms of a trade eficit we lost with china $500 billion. we lost with mexico. that's why mexico is going to pay for the wall, folks. mexico, look, the wall, it's actually 2,000 miles. we have a lot of natural barriers. all is going to cost $10 billion. going to be a trump wall and bring it in under budget. i have to name it after myself because maybe -- should i name it after myself? i don't think so. but we are going to have a real wall and going to be great. stop drugs pouring into maine and new hampshire. alls work.

properly done, walls work. they come up to me and say, but mexico will never pay. politicians say, but donald -- first they said there is no wall. you can't bilt a wall. china built a wall that is 13,000 miles. 2,000 miles, we can do it. i hear cruz saying we can't build a wall and we heard him say, we are going to a build a wall. i don't know if rubio said it. i think rubio has bigger problems than worrying about walls. here's the thing we have with mexico a $58 billion trade deficit. if the wall costs $10 billion, a tiny fraction, i guarantee you that mexico is going to pay for the wall just as sure as you are standing there. a politician wouldn't say

hat. and vincente fox threw the f-word out. f-bomb. can you imagine if i used that word? that would be a big story. he threw it out and nobody cares. and then we had our vice president apologize to them. i love mexico and the mexican people and i have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of mexican people, thousands have worked for me. the hispanics are phenomenal people. i won the poll in nevada. i won nevada and i won with the hispanics which is so good. so good. [cheers and applause] mr. trump: but look, here's the problem, their leaders are too smart. we are getting killed at the border and trade. nabisco is moving in from chicago and closing their big plant. look at ford, they are building

a massive car complex and closing in michigan and other places and closing and going to exico. the other day, carrier air conditioners. good air conditioners. i'm not buying them anymore. they announced 1,400 men and women are being laid off. big, big story. 1,400 and this manager -- well, ladies and gentlemen we are closing our plant and moving to mexico. he was pretty tough. this was not a guy with social grace. they are going to move to mexico. mitt romney said we have to keep free trade. if we keep free trade, we aren't going to have any companies left at all. you more -- know more about nafta but we are going to do omething much different.

i built a tremendous fortune and i started off with very little. they say my father. if my father would have given -- my sister and brother called me up and said don, are they kidding. and now it's worth billions and billions and billions of dollars. i will tell you something. with the carrier plant, what you have to do is you have to be smart. so this isn't free trade. we have to have smart trade. china charges tremendous tariffs and taxes. i have a friend who is a manufacturer. he makes great product and puts it into china and they send it back. third time they take it but pays a tremendous tax. you have no idea how tough it s to negotiate with china. and when they take the product, they charge you the tax. china when they sell their product. no tax. take our jobs, no tax, no nothing. not going to work that way. mexico the same thing.

ford builds this plant going to ake cars, trucks and parts and going to send them into our country. no tax. where is that good for us? when i watch a guy like romney who truly is a light weight. think of it. he is talking about trade. and i love free trade. i'm a free trader. a lot of the conservatives say donald trump doesn't like free trade. i want smart trade. i don't want to be losing $500 billion a year. i don't want to be losing $58 billion a year. i want to make money or break even at worst. cheers and applause] mr. trump: so i tell people, if you had like light weight rubio as president, he is all controlled by the special interests, 100%. remember, i'm self-funding and they aren't paying me anything. a guy like ted cruz getting a

ot of money from oil and other places, ok. honestly that's the way life works. oil, 100%. he'll get a lobbyist, 100%. me, it's different. here's what they will do t. they'll carry it to anyone who will listen. only way we are going to stop this tremendous outflow of companies and pfizer, great drug company leaving going to ireland. wonderful. but you aren't going to take advantage of us. you aren't going to take of s. here's what happens. let's use carrier. i know it's not presidential and my wife called before and said darling, would you ask presidential like you were the other night when you had those victories. i said, but i have incoming. when you have incoming, you can't be too presidential.

i said i have incoming. here's what happens. they said act presidential tonight. i said i'll act presidential, but if somebody hits me, i'm going to hit them back harder. [cheers and applause] mr. trump: it's one of those things. what happens is they won't do anything, the lobbyists will say you can't do anything to to ford. they have been loyal to you and very good. and good. that's the end of that. ere's what i do. i call up and i would like to se one of my guys. many of the great businessmen and women endorse me. i would announce them but nobody cares. these are the most important people. i will use the greatest business people, greatest negotiators in the world.

this is so easy. i want to do it myself but it's so un-presidential for me to call up carrier. i call up say hi, i'm president donald trump, president of the united states. i hope you enjoy your stay in mexico and i hope you build a beautiful plant and i want to wish you well, but let me tell you something, you moved out. you hurt 1,400 people. these people were devastated. i watched it and did a great job. you hurt 1,400 people and there's no free trade. their politicians are smarter and streeter and smart-wise. i said here's the story, every air conditioning unit you make and every single air conditioning unit you make and comes into the border into the united states, we are going to charge you a 35% tax, ok? cheers and applause] mr. trump: and that's it. here's what happens. as sure as you are standing here. you have to speak to the president. they can't speak to me. i didn't take their money. here's what's going to

happen. they are going to call me up within 24 hours and say, mr. president, do you have any second thoughts. i say absolutely not. sir, we decided to stay in the united states. e've decided -- now, we can be cute or say we are coming -- in ashington they are playing with all sorts of formula. when hit made the statement saying he will ruin free trade. if i'm losing $500 billion with china, $58 billion with mexico in terms of deficits, what do i want that trade for any way. who needs that kind of trade? seriously. who needs that kind of trade.

hit admitted i'm a much better businessman than him. i am. we will have better relationships with mexico. we will have better elationships with china. they'll respect us. they don't respect us now. they think we are the dumbest people in the world led by the dumbest people. hina in the south china sea is building a massive military force with runways, tremendous complex. they aren't supposed to be doing this. they have no respect for our country. with me, i'm going to rip up those trade deals and make really good ones. we have the cards. remember, i wrote "the art of the deal," which is the number one business selling book of all time. we have the cards. we have rebuilt china with the money they have taken out of our country for many years in

all fairness. it is the greatest single theft in the world. you go to china, they have trains that go 300 miles an our. we have trains that go chug, chug, chug and then have to stop because the track split. they have trains in china and japan. we are like third world. o to our airports, you go to dubai and qatar and different places in asian see airports like you have never seen and come home and land at kennedy or l.a.x. and land at la guardia. la guardia with the potholes all over the place. it is a very sad thing. what is happening to our country is very, very, very sad. we are going to make it a lot better and make it different and get rid of those horrible trade deals. at some point we can't continue to lose $500 billion. we can't continue. you add it up whether it's india, vietnam, whether it's anybody, every single country in the world that deals with us takes advantage of the stupidity of the united states and a lot of it is because they

have the right lobivities and negotiators and hire the right people on pennsylvania venue. they have the right people. and they are negotiating with political hacks, not our best people. almost our worst people. so we are going to make our country so strong. we are going to make it strong militarily. our military is very depleted cheers and applause] mr. trump: our military is very badly depleted and everything - the whole country is depleted and we are going to make our military strong. our vets are treated horribly. horribly. we're going to get rid of obamacare and we're going to repeal it and replace it. and get rid of common core which is a disaster. you know, in the world educationally, of the 30 ountries that they look at, we

are number 30 in education, meaning we are the worst. and yet per student cost, number one so far, number two doesn't exist. we are number one in costs and we are number 30 in terms of success. so we are ranked the worst and yet we spend the most. and part of that is common core, it's terrible. part of it is a lot of theft, waste, fraud and abuse. but we are going to straighten t out. when i won new hampshire, they came out with a report, donald trump spent $2.5 million and i on't mention names but other people spent $45 million. > who? mr. trump: i don't think he likes me, do you agree? wouldn't it be nice -- so i have the lowest expenditure by far and i have the biggest results by far. way, way number one. wouldn't it be nice if we could

do that for our country? we can do that. that's what we are going to do. cheers and applause] mr. trump: so we are simply going to make america great again. we are going to win so much. you are going to get so tired of winning, you are going to say please, let us have a ouple of losses. we are going to make america great again and you'll say ok. thank you very much. i love you very much. go vote on saturday. i love you. thank you. thank you. thank you everybody.

♪ i saw her today at the reception a glass of wine in her hand i knew she would meet her connection at her feet was her footloose man no, you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometime you find ou get what you need

we went down to the emonstration to get your fair share of abuse singing, "we're gonna vent our frustration if we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse" you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes well you just might find ou get what you need i went down to the chelsea rugstore

to get your prescription filled i was standing in line with mr. jimmy nd man, did he look pretty ill we decided that we would have a soda my favorite flavor, cherry red sung my song to mr. jimmy yeah, and he said one word to e, and that was "dead" i said to him you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need you get what you need--yeah, oh

baby i saw her today at the reception in her glass was a bleeding man she was practiced at the art of

eception well i could tell by her blood-stained hands you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you just might find ou get what you need you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you

want but if you try sometimes you just might find you just might find ou get what you need [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> that's donald trump in portland earlier today. we'll have mitt romney and donald trump's remarks again tonight here on primetime, starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. we'll take you live now to the conservative political action conference being held just outside the nation's capitol. on the screen is former nasa astronaut, former -- former apollo 11 astronaut, buzz aled are in, he's been speaking for about five minutes. live coverage here on c-span. mr. aldridge: -- mr. aled are in: those others

mr. aldrin: presidential leadership in this initiative would improve, extend and celebrate american exceptionalism in a way that no other policy or program could. cycling pathways to walk on mars must be made, full throt le up. - throttle up. we came in peace for all man kind. we americans do these things, think big, act on our dreams,

then look back and bring the world along with us. so to this room, full of leaders, let me say, this is the time to venture outward again, much further in space, bringing humanity out to mars, making history there as we americans have here. listen closely to my challenge. the president, who appeals to the higher angels and takes us closer to the heavily body we call mars, will not only make history, he will long be remembered as a pioneer for man kind. to reach, to comprehend and settle mars. and if not now, when?

and if not us, who? i appeal to you to take up the challenge and bring us all along, from the wild blue yonder, with giant leaps to this waiting island in the blackness of space. this is the time, this is our time. and this is your time. it's an honor to be here with you and i absolute those who have the -- salute those who have the currently to lead this great nation, lead it forward, taking the next advances which are our destiny. as ronald reagan said, we americans have a rendezvous with destiny.

let's go for it. god bless america. [cheers and applause] your supporter and dedicated , mars guy buzz. cheers and applause] >> now, please welcome from the american conservative union, reg morgan and dan snyder.

ms. morgan: i hope you all are having a first great day at cpac. tomorrow we're going to start off having presidential candidates. so if you want your voice heard tweet us your questions using #askcpac. that way you can get your questions to our staff and we can get them to the presidential candidates and you can hear your voice heard. mr. snyder: the presidential candidates do start coming morrow, that means the monitors are going to be up. don't bring your bags tomorrow. if you bring your bags, you may be told to go back to your hotel rooms and drop them back off. or at a minimum, it's going to just delay everything. to avoid too much of a delay, we are opening the doors at 7:30 tomorrow, so please feel free to line up even earlier than that so we can keep things moving. ms. morgan: tonight we are co-sponsoring a debate watch party right here in the main ballroom with town hall.

and the doors will open at 7:00. we'll have a reception in the lobby area at 7:00. and then these doors will open at 8:00. we're going to have sean handity here at 7:30, so the doors will still be open so there will be a free flow in and out. . d then 8:00 starts a panel mr. schneider: the heritage foundation is starting their reception at 5:00 p.m. in the national harbor rooms two and three, so if you go up the escalators from here to national harbor, the heritage foundation will be happy to host you there. thank you all so much. ms. morgan: thank you all.

>> the first day of cpac, the conservative political action conference, happening just outside of washington, d.c. the members getting an update on some things that are happening tonight. and the plans for tomorrow, hearing from some of the republican presidential candidates. we can tell you that coming up next we expect a number of republicans from congress, conservative republicans from congress, to be talking about issues that they're working on, including senator james lankford of oklahoma, grassley, the chairman of the judiciary committee, coming to talk. tom tillis, senator from north carolina. kevin brady, the chairman of the appropriations committee, chairman of the ways and means committee, coming in to talk as well. so a number of members expected next. that's next on the agenda. we will have it live for you here on c-span. we'll tell you too, the coverage tomorrow as we mentioned, republican candidates tomorrow afternoon, they'll hear from john kasich

and ted cruz, also later in the day, from ben carson. who yesterday suspended his presidential campaign and is likely to talk more about that tomorrow. then on the weekend, on saturday, donald trump in the morning, that will be a tape speech, we're airing that at 10:00 a.m. saturday morning. and marco rubio speaks to the group saturday at 11:35 eastern. all of that, except for the donald trump speech, all of that live.

>> the day number one of the conservative political action conference. they'll hear number from a number of -- they'll hear next from a number of republican members of congress. house and senate, pretty much certainly the house has wrapped up its work for the day and the senate likely as well. the senate coming to no conclusion on their drug abuse bill. the debate continues over on c-span2. coming up this evening on c-span, we're going to share you today's speech by mitt romney in salt lake city at the university of utah. critical of donald trump. also of the democratic frontrunner, hillary clinton. and donald trump's response. which ran about an hour or so. that happened this afternoon. we'll show you those to you

back-to-back at 8:00 eastern here owe c-span. -- on c-span.

mr. lankford: good afternoon. hanks for being a part of this great family. let's have some fun this afternoon. are you ready for that? let's get a chance to talk about some basic liberties. i want to give you some context. i'm a little bit of an odd duck coming into congress. i served 22 years in ministry before i came into congress. my wife and i called it life's greatest interpretation. we did not expect -- interruption. we did not expect to be in congress at this point but felt

that god called us to this. after 22 years of working with students, i was well prepared to work with the juveniles in congress, so it worked out extremely well in my own personal preparation for that. but i've come to a different context. we as conservatives in some way have lost our way. on some basic things. conservatism has been about defense, about fiscal responsibility, and about faith. it's been the ability to be able to put all these things together. we are a people that are passionate about freedom. freedom for all people, all colors, all backgrounds, all economic situations, all faiths, everyone to be able to experience the freedom that we have. and that we have the opportunity to be able to enjoy. the constitution's a clear document when it gets around faith. congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. lots of folks want to twist that off in this day and age to

it's freedom of worship. it's not freedom of worship. it's freedom to exercise your religion. and that's very, very different. for the people that would say, you can go in that spot and you can have worship however you want to, have missed completely the constitution. it's the ability to be able to live your faith out. or to be able to have no faith at all. to be able to choose to live that out. for whatever reason, this culture at this time is missing some very basic things. one is this passion about faith. and who we are. if you looked at our government agencies, you would believe that the official religion of america is atheism. that was never the intent of the founders. it is for every individual to be able to live their faith out. because we understood from the very beginning as americans that god is older than government, god is bigger than government, and god will outlast government. our rights don't come from . vernment

our rights come from god. and we have always believed that. [applause] loosely quote coach yost, speaking of coach boone, and "remember the titans" from the beginning we learn to sea the -- see the soul of a man. not just the look of him. i firmly believe religion and religious freedom does not exist because of america. america exists because of religious freedom. that's why we came to be. [applause] look at our history. 1620. having undertaken for the glory of god and the advancement of the christian faith in the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of virginia. look at our declaration of independence. we owe these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. virginia statute of religious freedom, 1779, some guy named thomas jefferson you might have heard of said, al mighty god

has created the mind free and free it shawl remain. in the jefferson memorial, if you ever get a chance to go there, do it, you stand in the jefferson memorial, look at the northwest wall. and that wall, it says this, a quote from thomas jefferson. god who gave us life, gave us liberty. account liberties of a nation be secure when we remove the conviction that these liberties are a gift of god? indeed i tremble for my country when i reflect that god is just. and his justice cannot sleep forever. thomas jefferson. the pilgrims is a great painting, if you've ever worked -- walked in the capitol rotunda. you have an enormous painting of the beginning of america. it was put in place in 1843. it is literally older as a painting than the dome that is above it. and it is hung there even when that dome that's above it was being built, the painting was hanging there at that time. it depicts how america began as they saw it.

and it began on the deck of a ship with a group of people huddled around an open bible praying. that's the painting that hangs in our capitol right now. about the earliest beginnings of our nation. the top of the washington monument has this statement. praise be to god. that's what it sails. you've got to be fairly tall to be able to read it. but that's what it says on the outside of the washington monument. when you walk into c.i.a. headquarters, which you're not allowed to do, but if you were allowed, look to your left. in langley, virginia, at c.i.a. headquarters, etched into the marble there it says, and you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. when you stand in the house chamber, the words in god we trust are behind you and in front of you as the face of moses looking back at you, every single day in the senate as we begin session we begin it in prayer. this has been a nation that hasn't been afraid of faith and hasn't been afraid that people could live their faith out until now.

and for whatever reason, people are becoming afraid of religious liberty in this day and age. we as conservatives should lead the way. to be able to speak out for people to believe, of any faith, or to have no faith at all. because it is a basic tenant of our beliefs, that people should be able to live out their faith. the striking thing is, right now in this culture, people now hear the words religious liberty and you know what they process? we say religious liberty, they hear anti-gay. we say religious liberty, they say anti-choice. we say religious liberty and they say, anti-whatever. it's become an amazing transition, that people are beginning to be afraid of people of faith living their faith out. why people would be afraid of a baby jesus on the courthouse lawn or a minora in a city park absolutely confounds me. we are people of faith.

people can choose to live their faith as they choose to. there's a court hearing in a few weeks about a soldier that dared to put a scripture reference on their desk. that was a problem. if they had on their desk a little sign that said, don't worry, be happy, that wouldn't be a problem. but if the words are scripture, that suddenly became a problem. we're becoming a nation that is afraid of faith. many of you know the story of coach kennedy, who in washington state dared to go after the game was over, as a high school coach, kneel down on the 50-yard-line and thank god that his players were protected and they had a good game. silent prayer. the school district came back to him and pushed him and said, you can't do that. if you pray and people can see you, it will be seen as an establishment of religion. so the school district offered for him to have a private place to pray in the press box after the game was over. literally the state saying, i will choose the time and location of your prayer. we are a nation where you can

pray at any spot, at any time. we do not have freedom of worship. we have freedom of religion. [applause] it is a basic principle of who we are. the challenge, is what do we do about it? and where with are? this freedom seems to be slipping away. how do you recover it? let me give 2000 quick ideas. number one is this, decide we as conservatives believe in the first amendment or not. first things first. if we believe in freedom of religion, that is all faiths. we stand for the person next to us to have a different faith than ours, and for their right to practice their faith. because we have a right to practice ours. i am completely confused by the number of people that don't like other faiths being around us. i'm fairly confident in my faith. i'm a christian. i believe that jesus christ died on the cross for my sins. he paid the penalty for me and with his resurrection showed his power over death and his ability to be able to pay for my sin and carry me to heaven forever. i'm not afraid of that.

[applause] it doesn't bother me for someone to sit next to me that disagrees with that. why? because i think i'm right, so that doesn't offend me. for people to panic that someone around them believes differently than them, this is america. we stand up for other purposes the freedom of individuals. it's a conservative principle of who we are. but the second thing i think is a bigger issue. we want to make a difference in this nation and freedom of religion, actually live your faith. i'm amazed at the number of people that want to stand up for faith but don't actually live personally -- live it personally. i believe in dr. pepper. i have a refrigerator full of it and i actually drink it. i take it in. for those individuals that believe in people should have faith but actually don't choose to live their own faith, i'm confounded by that. there are folks that want to stand up for school prayer but they won't pray with their kids at night. there are folks that want to see the 10 commandments on the

school house lawn or courthouse lawn but they lie and they cheat on things and they download free movies and steal those and i don't want to talk about adultery. there are people that aren't passing on these basic values. i believe in our nation, the greatest thing we can do as conservatives, to be able to push our nation back to faith, is for those of us that have faith to live our faith. you see, there's a big difference between faith and a hobby. a hobby is something you do on weekends but it doesn't affect your life. if it's a faith it affects everything about you. 1984, i was a high school student in dallas, texas. i went to a convention, a republican convention, in 1984, when a gentleman named ronald reagan was in his second convention. it was a great day. very memorable day. but the not as memorable as the day i was also in high school and i remember kneeling down before god and saying, god, i accepted christ when i was younger, but i've not determined in my life whether this is really real or not and

the decision that i made to say, this is either real or it's not, and if it's real, i'm going to follow you. and i've chosen to follow him. for those of you that are of faith, it's time if we believe in faith that we actually live it. let's live it out. god bless you all. [applause] >> thank you, thank you. folks, it's serious. it's real. and it's here right now. our beloved country is in the middle of a crisis, an overwhelming crisis, it has two

components. the first is this global security crisis. i believe the world is more dangerous than at any other time in my lifetime. mr. perdue: and interlocked with that global security crisis is our own federal debt crisis, which today threatens our variability -- very ability to fund our military and defend our country. today, after we spend all of our tax revenue on mandatory expenses like social security and medicare and those are all necessary, but after we spend all of that, there's nothing left. every dime that is spent on foreign aid, every dime that's spent on our military is borrowed. ladies and gentlemen, we are indeed at a moment of crisis in america. how did we get here? and what do we do about it? well, in the last 100 years, we've had three democratic supermajorities. the first gave us the new deal. the second gave us the great society. the third, obamacare and

dodd-frank. i'm just a business guy but i would argue that most of the responsibility for this financial catastrophe can be laid at the feet of those three supermajorities. and yet the irony is that the very people that they claim to champion, the working middle class and working poor, they have failed them. today, for example, poverty is exactly the same as it was in 1965, when the great society and the war on poverty started, poverty today is the same rate. the sweeping liberal progressive policies have failed. as a conservative, i'm outraged by that. because they still get to champion the working middle class and the working poor. to me it's not that complicated. but people are still hurting out there in america. i hear it all the time. i'm new to this. but i hear that over and over. it's now no longer good enough to just talk about liberalism and conservatism. because of this disenfranchised people out there, i believe that it's now the political

class in washington versus everybody else. you, me, everybody back home. look, we can solve this. but it's finally time that we honestly have an open and straightforward debate in congress about bringing term limits to the united states congress. [applause] we can fix this. these complicated problems are not so complicated that we can't solve them. we can absolutely fix this budget. it's only worked four times in the last 40 years. you think any business could survive doing that? no. it's what creates this problem. we can absolutely get rid of these redundant agencies. the general accounting office estimates that that's about $400 billion. we need to get our economy growing and get people back to work. it's not that hard to do. if we would just revise these ar cake and out of date -- archaic and out of date and

noncompetitive tax laws, if we would push back on regulatory agencies that are overburdening small businesses, and if we would once and for all take advantage and develop a plan of these god-given resources that god's blessed us with, we can get this economy going. we can absolutely save social security and medicare. we have to, for the people who need it the most. the problem is, both of those trust funds are literally out of money in less than 15 years. their trust funds go to zero. we can actually absolutely get this economy going again. the next thing is we have to get at the underlying cost of our health care system. throw obamacare out. put a new replacement plan in. and let's get at this spiraling cost of health care. but before we do all of that, honestly, i think we've got to do one thing and it may be the hardest thing to do. we've got to turn our country, we've got to return to the founding principles of our founding mothers and our

founding fathers, economic opportunity. limited government. individual liberty. fiscal responsibility. faith in god. ronald reagan once said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. if we don't pass it down in the blood stream, it must be fought for, protected and passed on so they can do the same. or one day in our sunset years we'll be telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in america when women and men were free. not on my watch. that's why i got involved. not on your watch. that's why you're here. the stakes are too high for us to not make a difference right now for our country. no matter who your presidential candidate is, no matter who our nominee is, we can not -- we cannot allow hillary clinton one more night in our white

house. thank you for what you do. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. thank you. [applause] mr. williams: i'm roger williams from texas. a christian conservative, pro-life, second amendment grassroots taxpayer. like every one of you. [applause] i believe marriage is between a man and a woman. and that no federal funding should ever be seen by planned parenthood. [applause] i represent main street america. i represent main street america. this main street taxpayers like all of you. i make decisions based on

fairness, family values, limited government, strong defense, lower taxes, quality education and conservative judgings. how we get there is pretty simple. i'm reading the constitution. the constitution as it is written, it's not living and breathing, nancy pelosi. it is what it is. i'm listening to all of you. i'm sticking with my conscience and i'm reading the bible every single day. and i can tell you i've made a -- i haven't made a decision yet i regret. i'll tell you what. i speak for main street america. and the problem i have right now, i'm mad at heck at barack obama. he's going all over the world apologizing for america. what he needs to be doing is apologizing to americans. he needs to be apologizing for why we have the highest tax rates in the world. he needs to apologize why we have health care that is unworkable. he needs to apologize while we have no energy policy. he needs to apolicy jies why he's dismantled our military, the greatest military in the world. he needs to apologize about the hundreds of thousands of kids

dropping out of the ninth grade every single year, they're losing hope in america, that should never happen. he should apologize for $19 trillion debt he continues to put us in. so, here's the deal. what he needs to be doing is he needs to be apologizing to us, why we have no tax plan, why we have no energy plan. needs to apologize for all that. needs to apologize to us when he says the economy's great, why we have 76% of the people in america say they're living paycheck to paycheck. he needs to apologize for that. why we have 47 billion people on food stamp, why do we have people that haven't worked one day the last 12 months. he needs to apologize for that and he needs apologize for 15% of the people in this country in total poverty in america, are you kidding me? that is a tragedy. he needs to apologize for all that. what do we need to do about it? we need to make sure that we elect conservatives in november of 2016. we need to decide, are we going to be sheep, or are we going to

be shepherds? are we going to be pretenders or contenders? are we going to be students of the game or playing the game? what we have to keep from happening is when he creates a country and hillary clinton creates a country of 300 million victims as opposed to 300 million pate rots. . we have to understand if you go back in history, the winter of 1778 when george washington pulled those troops out of valley forge they left barefoot on the ice. you had brothers killing brothers in the civil war. we had 30% unemployment in the depression. several millions of the best and brightest got injured or killed in world wars. then we had 9/11. each time that happened, america stood up and said, i'm going to make it better. i firmly believe this is our