that is as absurd as it gets. you know what is interesting, mike leavitt had a lot of inch -- influence on this. i said what if we put it out there and things don't work as they should? he says, let me tell you something. the people of utah, the people of ohio, have a better chance of getting their hands around the ears of their state representatives, senators, and governor, then a chance of airing their grievances at the federal level. he is exactly right, and we will learn from one another. we will shift power, and mike, you're absolutely right. we will not hesitate to get that done with a plan that will be presented to the congress in the first 100 days. [applause] thank you. [applause]

you must be having a lot of boring times, because you are so charged up this morning. [laughter] but thank you. let me go to you. i am the only one who wants to take lots of questions from the folks, and now's your chance to say whatever you want. i have done a lot of town hall meetings, and they have all been pretty good. so let's not blow this one. [laughter] >> you have spoken several times about the lord and religious things. personally, how religious are you? do you attend weekly? gov. kasich: first of all, i try

not to wear this stuff on my sleeve. but i do believe, that there is a creator. you know what, somebody asked me, what are you talk about god more, you could get more votes? and i said, using god to get a vote? i want to have a view of a golf course when i get up there, and i don't want to cheap in god. the most important thing about faith to me is, the foundation. terrible things come. they are inevitable in life. michael novak, the great catholic theologian said, and i think he quoted from somebody else, that life is but a veil of tears, and sometimes it can feel that way. faith in a higher power does not solve that. all the faith in a higher power does is, allow you to build your home on granite, rather than on sand.

but, i am not going to get into -- i wrote a book, called "every other monday," i am doing the best i can down here. [applause] i will vote myself. the only good thing about the way it works, i get a mulligan every day. i get a mulligan every day to get out and do a little bit better. [applause] yes ma'am? >> i would like to see the -- i don't like to see the republicans insulted. we are at war, and we had to please the democrats. money was spent. they had to defend us all across

the country. it has a lot to do with money spent by the republicans. i was a marco rubio person because he stood with a rock -- with iraq, he went we would've accomplished if we would have stayed there. that tells me about your wisdom and handling of these things. jobs don't count for anything if we are not independent. governor kasich: that was pretty good. that's been sticking in her craw for a while, the way that sounded. number one, republicans claimed money like a drunken sailor on everything. they never had his ego until the seventh year of pushing ministration. they are spending a lot of money now. they just broke their own

targets again. do you know why it happens? because people want to go home and they want to be liked. even in my state when we started to run the surpluses you could not believe the pressure on us -- and i have aoney and i am a republican-controlled legislature. the reason why it happens is because people want to make people happy, they want to make everybody has got a special interest in this country. the key is who stands in the breach iago who says that if we do all of this we are not going to be able to grow? we are not going to be a would get spending under control. we have a lot of republican governors who are -- they are struggling to try and get their budget solidified. because there is so much pressure to spend and you know, it is not, it is not like they -- you know, they are bad people or anything it is just that you can do zero way and it takes a leader to say no, we are not going to do that because if we gave on that that is what

happens. the economy gets hurt in people there's jobs, ok? number one. number two. i served on the defense committee for 18 years. secretary rumsfeld called me into the pentagon to a meeting with the former secretaries of defense to discuss our problems and i was there. and by the way when i was there there was a and their former secretary of defense of national security advisers named brezinski and his daughter is on morning joe, she is a nice lady. her father was in this meeting and he looked over at rumsfeld and he said, would you tell the president to stop saying dead or alive? that we want bin laden dead or alive? dead or alive is just incendiary and kissinger was sitting across the table from him and he looked at rumsfeld and he said i agree, we don't want bin laden alive. ok?

so, here is the situation. with iraq, the firstborn in iraq, was an amazing situation because the muslim arabs supported the west and we went as a unified group to push saddam out of kuwait, ok? i actually went there after the war and even saw the oil fields that were still on fire. the egyptian ambassador to the united states went to the rose garden and announced their support of our arab friends who would work with us. now let's talk about the second iraq war. second iraq war was predicated on the fact that saddam hussein had weapons of mass distraction. ok? he did not have them. ok? there is no way that i would have ever gone back there a second time because it would have gotten us in the middle of the civil war.

here is what is interesting. george bush the first, you might recall, those who are young and you will study at those who are older here remember that when we pushed saddam out of kuwait, our armies were advancing toward baghdad. people said why didn't we go all the way to baghdad and throw saddam hussein out? we did not finish the job. but you see we did finish the job. because had we gone farther we would have had ourselves in the middle of the civil war. civil wars are not something that america should involve itself in directly. [applause] let me give you an example. i was in congress when ronald reagan supported the u.s. involvement in lebanon.

i don't know how much you know about lebanon but there are, you cannot even figure out all the people that are fighting one another there are so many of them. and we had a vote as to whether u.s. marines should stay in lebanon in a voting no. because i have learned over time and i was a very young man at the time -- talk about pressure -- i was 30. and reagan was my hero. you know what happened in lebanon? they blew up our marines, their barracks. they killed hundreds of marines and we left. civil wars are in place where we should not involve ourselves. you have to remember when we see involve ourselves we are talking about men and women who we stick in harm's way. so i believe that for example isis now, they need to be destroyed. and they needed be destroyed with the same coalition that we saw in the first gulf war. the arabs, and the west, fighting together both in the air and on the ground and destroy isis and then once and settles down, i am for coming home. i don't want to rebuild any of those countries. [applause]

now, so i think we have to be very, very careful. i'm going to tell you that afghanistan. they cannot go on forever. we are putting our resources and our flesh and blood over there for how long? at some point they got to fight for themselves. we have to give them the equipment in the training to do it and most particularly the dates and aircraft to support their ground forces and if in fact we see al qaeda or isis or anyone gathering we can use special forces to take them out but a stay that lasts forever is not smart for us. we will wear our people out. that does not mean that we are not aggressive when our interests are at stake and that is exactly how i feel about the need to destroy isis. let me to hear the other thing i believe we need. we need shared intelligence around the world.

they just caught one of the fugitives today, thank god, over in belgium. they finally caught him. [applause] we can take lemons and turned into lemonade and let me tell you why i say that. the egyptians know they have a problem. the saudi's know they have a problem. the jordanians know that the radicals want to take him down. the gulf states know what is at stake for all of them. they have become so -- they have really tilted toward the west. the cleveland clinic has a hospital in abu dubai in the gulf states. the fact is they knew about the dangers. i don't think when you to tell the europeans much about the dangers. the french? the brits? the germans? the belgians? we don't -- we now have an opportunity to bring the civilized world together to take

care of business, together intelligence, to share intelligence, and communicate a message to the world that civilization, respect for women, the rule of law, the inability to express oneself against the government, that these are values that transcend any of these radicals out here who are intent on trying to destroy our way of life. but i want you to know, it is easy, it is easy to rattle the saber, it is easy to threaten the we have to be very precise and very carefully and we have to measure our direct interest before we can the people that doesn't mean we cannot support people with similar names are similar goals that we have. but not without permanent women unless we are directly threatened. so that is kind of where i am on this whole thing and i will

predict this to you. wendy's wars wind down and we destroy eyes as they are going --, when these wars wind down and we destroyed isis, they are going to redraw an entire big chunk of the map in the middle east and they are try to do it right now in syria with the kurds finally claiming some territory. the world in some respects is a mess because america retreated. because the president didn't understand or did not accept our role as the leader of the free world. right back here, sir. you, with the tide. we are going to get him a microphone. we are short on microphones in utah. >> i have been trying to think of an elephant way to ask this. -- an eloquent way to ask this.

addicted lot of time to drugs and that sort of thing. i am a law student at byu now. [applause] i really appreciate the things he of said in criminal justice reform and treatment and so on and giving people treatment and a second chance. i was wondering if you could maybe -- i've read a little bit about ohio. i was wondering if you could tell me about your philosophy. and please don't backpedal at your opponents. kasich: if you are comfortable, please share how you ever got in that fix. think of the courage it takes.

[applause] >> one of the things that i didn't realize that i am 35 now -- i was in my mid-20's and i didn't know how divorce affected children. my parents were divorced. remarried. i had a pretty good father figure in my life but i was already angry. i fell in the path of drugs and crime and all of that sort of thing area -- thing. i had people trying to help me but i wasn't ready. i was in and out of jail. i had a lot of problems. getting involved with some friends in salt lake who had a meth lab. anyway, long story short --

governor kasich: how did you pull out? 23, a couple of years into it, i suited to realize that this is it really the -- i started to realize that this isn't really the life i wanted for myself. i tried to think how can i get myself out of this? i wanted to go to school and i got out there i was able to come here. inraduated from this school 2014. [applause] the opportunities that i had when i was released were on common. the ability that i had with the family support -- the myationship that i had with family, they gave me the support that i needed. they said, if you want to go to school in the will help you. i started coming here and

started doing well and more support came. supporters, soy many professors and people in my life willing to go to bat for me. but i had to work hard for it. amazing kasey kahne story. he is smart. -- governor kasich: amazing story. he is smart. he is articulate. [applause] people love a comeback story. that is america. we love somebody that can pull themselves up. i believe that every life is precious. i alwayss a kid, wondered, could you have rehabilitation? we used to debate. can someone really change? i was fortunate enough to start on criminal justice reform right when i was elected. i am a believer that you cannot lock up enough people and get your's -- get your way out of the problem.

and beyond that, every human being should have a chance. if you are a gang bang her rur in prison and you are going -- if you are a gang banger or you are in prison and you are being of your inmates, you are going to be in prison for life. but we can train people in the prisons for jobs that exist on the outside. secondly, we don't want to lock up nonviolent felons. ,eople get caught in drugs, ok i don't want you to be afraid. because we are not going to take someone who'll will be a threat to society and your children. a facilitythem in where we can get them to rise. if you check the statistics, a lunch of people that we put in prison are in prison for less than a year.

to we put them there next murderers and rapists and we think, ok, this is good. we want to make sure we put people in a facility where they will be sakura, where the community -- will be secure, where the community will be safe, but where they can get on their feet. [applause] let me go on. , with theleveland mayor of cleveland. he was telling me, if you were a felon, you can't get a job cutting hair because you have this felony on your record. and it's called collateral sanctions. you try to come out and you try to get your life straightened out and there are a million roadblocks. so it used to be in the state, if you came to apply for a job in the state of ohio, there is a box. you know what i am talking about. here is your name. here is your address. have you ever been a felon? if you check that come always say thanks for coming in. when we take your application,

we throw it away in the trash can we leave. we have eliminated the box. this is about redemption. elected, i won't be upset. i will cry for 15 minutes, but i am here to try to help, ok? so if you come in, we don't ask you in your first interview. we will find out that you are a felon. then we will give you a chance to explain yourself to so you, young man, you will be in a position to be able to explain your life and where your screw ups were and will have the choice as to whether we would hire you are not. but i find that there is a lot of employers out there that are willing to give people a second chance and i want to give them a second chance. believe. thing i also and that is, for those who are poorer, there is a disproportionate number of people who don't have a chance

and opportunities and make big mistakes. and i don't believe that america should have a peaceful, hopeful, ,ptimistic society if everybody including those who grow up in poverty, whether they are in a minority committee or the majority community, people have to have hope that their lives can get better. people lose hope, they got nothing. that is how you end up in drugs. that is how you end up in gangs. that is how you end up doing, you know -- that is where suicide comes from. and for those young people who are here today, life is confusing. it can be tough. you who, for those of are here who are young, you can get to the point of life and say, oh, now is the time for me to prove all the big talk i been talking about all my lifetime. and you can get confused. if you get confused, tell somebody.

don't keep it to yourself. tell somebody. and for those moms -- who struggle with depression, tell somebody. we will fix it. it will come, the helpful come. help will come. but back to this young man, the recidivism rate in our state of ohio, think it is 27%. the national average is 50%. [applause] the because we give people a chance, we seem to be making progress. thank you. i want to get a mom here. go ahead. what happened to you? skiing? >> no, i wish. i can't actually ski right now. [laughter] governor kasich: don't say that. that's not funny. ok, go ahead. >> i'm a 15-year-old.

i will be going to college soon. i want to get a good education. i have a great family and i have ways to get the college, but there are some any people who don't they can't pay for it. so what can you do about student loans? a prettykasich: that's good question from a 15-year-old. [applause] if you are in high school, you want to be taking college credit courses. they ought to beginning you credit at the university. number two, we have a number of students who will graduate with decent honors and we find out math and cannot do english, so they have to go and take 11th grade courses when they are in college. we need to solve that problem. onliner words, we can go to remediate people.

the other thing i would tell you is that i was in michigan at a really great school. you could go there for two years and all the credits transfer. it would cost you $6,000. that means you can cut the cost of college education in half. and we are going to go to three years where you can go to a community college and transfer to ohio state and they have to take her credits. --n you cough up the cost you cut the cost of higher education by three quarters. everybody has to figure out what they can afford. like when you go shopping. you look at the prices and you try to figure out what you can afford. you have an allowance. you don't want to blow your allowance on all one thing. so you shop.

that is how you should be dealing with higher education. leadersion to that, the of higher education have to be careful that they are controlling their costs. for those who you really get this, their overhead costs have grown astronomically because presidents of universities, sometimes like congressman, if you are the president of a university today, what do you think you want to be tomorrow? how about president of the same school. if you cause a lot of trouble, that's a big, big problem. so we need better leadership better of higher education people. we have to think about what we can do for those that have run up this high debt. we have to figure a plan out. you have to deal with this. this is a big issue, mike. i can't going to him because he's smart. he will help me figure this out.

but we have to deal with this high debt problem that is out there, whether it deals with community service -- we have to see. so what you can afford to you don't go too much into debt. right there. you. right there. >> governor, thank you so much for coming to utah. i actually have lived in ohio for 20 years. i am here at byu law school. i worked for procter & gamble. one of the questions that i have -- i sort of law grenades sometimes. governor kasich: that's ok. that is a me to have to answer it. [laughter] >> that's ok. excited when i heard

that he who shall not be named was not coming here for the debate. rd to hearing forwa from you because i know that awareness is one of the things that your campaign lacks. a lot of people here in utah do not know who you are and what you are about. and if they did, a lot of them would support you because your values align with the citizens of utah. [applause] so i was a little disappointed to hear that you had spent subsequently -- that you had been subsequently knocked out of the debates. here is the first time that the blabbermouth won't be on stage to take over everything for so

long and governor kasich will actually be able to speak to the country and to the state of utah. kasich: yeah, because if we don't have the number one guy there, there is no use in having a debate. and i can spend my time more effectively to do things like this. you are right about something. yesterday, in "the new york publish the amount of earned media, the amount of attention that all the candidates receive. tron was at about $1.8 billion of free media. and i was, like, i don't know, 10th, chris? you know why? because i don't name call. [applause] per the first time since i've been in the campaign, as a result, by the way, of winning

in the most pivotal state in the country -- ohio. [applause] we are now getting attention. that you are right from the standpoint that we are behind the curve in people knowing me. so we are just continuing to work. with very little money and very little attention, i am one of three and one of potentially five people who could be president of the united states. we are doing something right by taking the high road. [applause] the guy in the leather jacket. >> thank you for your work with the revolution, the balanced budget. we appreciate your service. right now, we understand, even if you got 100 plus percent of the delegates, you still wouldn't make it. -- feel goodabout about you and mr. levitt with this republican party that can cause disunity.

why can't we get behind a great candidate right now? we have tag route -- ted cruz, one of the greatest constitutional candidates we have ever had. it is going to divide the party and there is no way you can make it with the number of delegates. kasich: let me answer. irst of all, the reason why am running for president of the united states and the reason why i continue to run is i am the only candidate that can beat hillary clinton in the fall. the other people can't. [applause] number one. it's a fact. it's a fact. i hate to tell you, but it's a fact during -- fact. number 2 -- you had your say, sir. let me finish. i am the only one who can beat her. the other people can't win. number two, we

are not playing a parlor game. i am running for president because i have a record and vision that is different than the rest of them. game.ot here playing a i am worried about who is going to run the united states. thirdly, no one is going to go to the convention with enough delegates. and guess what, that is the process of taking the nominee. and today coming one of the big national reports, they say, if they have a national convention, they are going to pick the person with the most experience and the person who can beat hillary clinton in the fall. and guess who they said that was. me. [applause] thank you. you. kind of unfairs for the guy whose article in the question. i have something to add to that.

governor kasich, i believe you will be the next president of the united states. onlyieve you all are the candidate who can beat hillary clinton that we have left. i agree with what you said. you have every right, just as much as ted cruz or tromp or any other republican, to run as long as nobody has 1237. it is childish to say that you cannot win. those are the rules we agreed to. so the question is this. -- governor kasich: i'm a name you a spokesman. >> i would love to talk later. but the question is this. [laughter] have the nomination, you are going to have to run against one of the biggest political powerhouses in the history of the united states. plan on contrasting with hillary clinton and effectively beating her without

a negative tone. watched marco rubio and ted cruz say they would never go negative and they broke my heart. that is why i am here for you. can you promise that you will never go back on your word? governor kasich: first of all, records are fair game. underneath and using personal attacks, calling people liars or whatever, that we've heard or we might have a riot if i can't get the delegates at convention, frankly, i don't think that's the way we are be conducting a campaign for president. we have a lot of young people here and they want to believe that the american political system can be good and positive and all of that. clinton, their problem that she -- let me give you my sense of things. people vote for somebody that they get a sense can be a leader. people don't spend a lot of time analyzing this tax plan versus that tax plan.

they try to get a sense can i vote for somebody who i think can represent me and run this country? experience matters. vision matters. and the problem that hillary has his she is a person who relies polls, and will tell anybody what they hear noted to get votes. people are smart in this country. people will make a decision based on who can be the best leader. have, bothord that i in washington ended ohio, not only of having conservatives aleutians, but being able to bring people together -- let me give you an example in my state, .hich is a microcosm of america i won 86 out of 88 counties in my last election. vote, 51%of the women of union households, and 26% of african-americans. and bio -- by the way, in ohio, where we had a primary, i beat

donald trump of by 11 points. [applause] what i'm saying to you is i don't think you have to go negative and i think you have to talk about your vision. i think you need to talk about your record. and i think at the end of the day, people will want somebody who has actually fixed problems, who also has a vision for what they want to do. and that is the best that i can do. in terms of going head-to-head with her, when she says we are going to get free this in free that, come on, folks. are you kidding me? he has switched her position on how many things? alertn a while, but very -- very rarely. as i know what i believe and i know what works. there are only three things that will matter in this presidential election. jobs, number one. jobs, number two. and guess what the third one is. jobs. and what she will try to do is claim that the republican work that we did under her husband created the jobs.

and it will have to be up to me to describe exactly what happened and why it happened and talk about my record in ohio. in the me tell you another thing. is record on foreign policy terrible. she has been part of this whole failed obama administration foreign-policy. so we will discuss it. the calling names, i'm not going there. you know what? too many people want you to do it the right ray -- right way. i think having the right vision and unifying people, i will be the next president of the united states. thank you all very much. i've got to go. [applause] lastly, we have this clock is coming up. so could you go and help me? if you don't like me, don't tell -- don't tell anybody. but if you do like me, go to these caucuses and let's move .orward are

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c-span takes you on the road to follow theouse as we candidates on c-span, c-span radio, and the span.org. -- and c-span.org. announcer: many of our veterans

have come into my office talking about who they want to vote for. it is your civic duty to get out and vote. i ensured you to get out, do your research, and vote for the candidate who best represents causes.se it's -- your [indiscernible] has the most progressive ideas that are important to the country. encourage everyone to go out and support bernie at possible. important issue is college tuition as well as jobs. when students get out of school, they need to know how they're

going to pay for it, with their future is going to look like, what the job market is going to look like and who is going to bring jobs back into the u.s., things like that. >> i was originally going to vote for bernie sanders. thater, since i am not politically inclined, i ended up voting for hillary clinton because she seems more knowledgeable and she has been secretary of state. and she has been in the white house and knows how the game goes. announcer: john kerry announced on thursday that the state department believes isis has carried out genocide against multiple ethnic and religious minorities in iraq and.. -- iraq andment was syria. the announcement was the result iraq administration determining whether genocide was being committed.

secretary kerry: good morning, everybody. the desk in 2014, daesh began to overrun major cities in committing atrocities. the united states responded quickly by denouncing these horrific acts and, more importantly, taking coordinated actions to counter them. in september of that year, president obama mobilized an international coalition, now 66 members strong, to halt and reverse daesh's momentum. that is what we are doing. in 18 months since, coalition airstrikes have helped to liberate key cities and towns. we have pushed the terrorists out of 40% of the territory that

they once controlled in iraq and 20% in syria. excuse me. we have degraded their leadership, attacked their revenue sources and distributed there -- disrupted their supply lines. that civil war in syria fuels daesh. doing what we are doing now, we are working to further isolate, to weekend, and to ultimately defeat them. we are working intensively to stop the spread of daesh and its affiliates within and beyond is -- beyond the region. my purpose in appearing before you today is to research -- to

assert that, in my judgment, daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including and shia christians, muslims. i say this, even though the ongoing conflict and the lack of access to key areas has made it impossible to have a detailed encumbrance of picture of all the daesh is doing and all that it has done. we have not been able to compile a complete record. we don't have access to

everywhere. but over the past months, we have conducted the review of the vast amount of information gathered by the state department, by our intelligence community, by outside groups. my conclusion is based on that information and on the nature of the acts reported. we know that in august 2013, daesh killed hundreds of yazidi trappedwomen and thousands in yazidi on mount zinjar without access to food, water and medical care. without our intervention, it was clear those people would be slaughtered. rescue efforts ultimately saved many, but not before -- captured and enslaved -- daesh captured and enslaved hundreds of women, raping them at will, and destroying the communities they

had lived for countless generations. we know they have executed christians solely because of their faith, that it executed 49 coptic candy utopian christians in libya and froze -- and force christian women and girls into sexual slavery. we know the daesh massacred thousands of shia turkmen, the sea stand starved -- the seized and starved, raping many women in front of their own families. we know that areas under its control, daesh has made a destroy theffort to cultural heritage of many communities, destroying armenian, orthodox, and catholic roman churches, burning monasteries and tomb then cemeteries.ecrating

's arew that daesh animated by an extreme ideology s as castigates yazidi pagans and devil worshipers. shia muslims meanwhile are referred to buy it as disbelievers and apostates and are subjected to frequent ambition attacks. in december a year ago, a 14-year-old boy approached the gate of a shiite mosque in baghdad, unzipped his jacket and show that he was wearing an explosive vest and surrendered to the guards. he had been recruited by daesh -- but told, unless he obeyed

every order, shiites would come and rape his mother. said, "it is a duty upon us to kill them, to fight them, do displace them coming to cleanse the land of their filth." one element of genocide is the an ethnic orstroy religious group in whole or in part. they have given their victims a choice between abandoning their faith are being killed. and that's a mini is the choice between one kind of death and another. the fact is that -- kills christians because they are christians. yazidis because they are yazidis. shia because they are shia. trott -- its entire world view is based on the illuminating those who do not subscribe to its perverse ideology.

there is no question in my mind daesh succeeded in establishing a so-called caliphate, it would seek to destroy what remains of ethnic and religious mosaic once thriving in the region. i want to be clear. i am neither judge in our prosecutor or jury with respect to the allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic lensing by specific persons. ultimately, the full facts must be brought to light in an independent investigation and a full legal determination made by a court or tribunal. but the united states will strongly support efforts to collect documents, preserve and analyze the evidence of do allies and we will that we can to see that the perpetrators are held accountable. today that my statement will assure the victims of atrocities that the united states recognizes and confirms the despicable nature of the crimes committed against

them. we will highlight the shared interest that otherwise diverse groups have in opposing -- -- opposing daesh. part of our response to daesh must be to destroy it by military force. but other dimensions are important as well. we do not lose track of that. in the past two and a half years, the united states has provided more than $600 million in emergency aid to iraqis who have been displaced from their communities by daesh. we are working closely with local authorities to assist in the recovery of sunnis who have been liberated and whose drastice brave

circumstances. we are funding the investigation of mass graves and gender-based violence and those who have escaped captivity. we continue to engage with the government of baghdad to make sure that its security forces and other institutions are more .epresentative and inclusive we are core dating with our coalition partners to choke off its finances and to slow its fighters.t of foreign and we are preparing for future efforts to liberate occupied territory with a nine to the protection of minority communities. in particular, the liberation of mozul and parts of syria that are currently occupied by daesh.

for those communities, the stakes in this campaign are literally existential. has is the fight that daesh defined. sh has self defined itself as genocidal. we must bear in mind after all that the best or spots to genocide is a reaffirmation to the fundamental right to survive of every group targeted for destruction. what daesh wants to a race, we must preserve. daesh.quires defeating it also demands the objection of bigotry and discrimination, those things that facilitated its rise in the first place. placesans come as more are liberated from our residents will need help not only to repair infrastructure, but also to ensure that minorities can return in safety, that they are integrated into local security forces and that they receive equal protection under the law.

our goal, after all, is not just to defeat daesh. only to find that in a few years some new terrorist group with a new acronym has taken its place. our purpose is to marginalize and defeat violent extremists once and for all. that is not easy. we know that. haveesident obama and i consistently said, it won't happen overnight. but in a best buy tonight, i say to all our fellow citizens and to the international community, we must recognize what daesh is doing to its victims. we must hold the perpetrators accountable and we much find the resources to help those harmed by these atrocities to be able to survive on their ancestral land. naming these crimes is important. but what is essential is to stop them. that will require unity in this country and within the countries directly involved in the

determination to act against genocide, against ethnic cleansing, against the other crimes against humanity must be pronounced among decent people all across the globe. thank you. >> why didn't you do more to prevent genocide here? announcer: the heritage foundation looked at the impact of that declaration by secretary kerry. steps the you and should carry out. -- the u.n. should carry out. >> good afternoon, everyone. welcome to the heritage foundation. i am bridgette wagner.

on behalf of my colleagues and i want to welcome you to our monthly conservative women's lunch. we are very pleased and honored to have a distinguished speaker. especially so in this particular week. it has been very important in terms of the united states taking a strong moral stand against isis. on monday, the united states helped representatives unanimously pass a resolution condemning the campaign against christians and religious minorities in the middle east as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. it called on governments to do the same. john kerry recognized that isis is waging a genocide against yazidis, christians, and shiites in the areas under its control. this is only the second time in

the united states' government history they have condemned an ongoing genocide. there was some doubt that the united states would include christians. our colleagues have been writing about this for several months. today, we have a tireless warrior for this cause. she has been tireless in helping document the christian genocide, and has worked tirelessly to educate the public, media, lawmakers, and government leaders. nina shea is the director of the center for religious freedom at the hudson institute. she has worked as an international human rights lawyer for more than 30 years. she works to advance individual religious freedom, and human rights, and foreign policy as it confronts islamic extremism and nationalist and remnant communist regimes.

she undertakes scholarships and advocacy in defense of those persecuted for religious beliefs and identities, and acts on democratic measures to end violence and oppression abroad. she has served seven terms on the u.s. commission on religious freedom. during the soviet era, her first client before the united nations was andrei sakharov. since then, she has been appointed as the u.s. delegate to the main human rights party by republican and democratic administrations. she served as a member of the clinton administration's advisors. in 2005, she served as a member of the coalition to unesco. she has played a role in grassroots for the international

religious freedom acts and has organized and led a coalition of churches and religious groups to end a religious war against non-muslims and dissident muslims in sudan. she organized and led a coalition of persecuted iraqi and egyptian christian minorities, which was relieved by a bipartisan congressional panel on may 7. in the summer of 2014, she met with pope francis to discuss the persecution of christians in the middle east. she worked across a broad range of persecuted religious minorities in the world. she has also testified and advises congress regularly on these issues. i would encourage everyone to check out the hudson institute's website to give you her many

accomplishments and links to her writings. in a radio interview nina had had yesterday she noted that this is an incredibly critical first step. it is just a step. as secretary kerry pointed out yesterday, the stakes in this campaign are utterly existential. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming a leader in the fight, nina shea, as she updates on isis' christian genocide and the policies ahead. [applause] nina: thank you so much, bridget. i want to thank heritage and the policy institute for inviting me. when they did, we had no idea it would be such a momentus week for this topic of christian genocide in the middle east.

yesterday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, secretary kerry took the podium and asserted "in my judgment daesh, another word for isis, is responsible for genocide for groups under its control -- including yazidis, christians, and shia muslims. they are genocidal by self ideology, actions, in what it says and does." that is the official u.s. designation. he goes on to give a talk about that. i encourage you to look it up. it is a genocide designation that is historic, surprising, important, and possibly of utmost significance. that is what i want to talk to you about. it is, as bridget said, the second time in u.s. history when

the u.s. designated genocide while it was still going on. the other time was when secretary powell designated darfur as genocide. it has designation under the law as genocide and it is harmful acts committed with -- killings and harmful acts committed with the intent to destroy all or part of a group. a religious group, for example, national group, or ethnic group. ongoing means two important implications. it means that you do not want to wait until lambs are slaughtered like we saw with europe's jews under the nazi period. 2/3's of that population were killed.

we want to prevent it from getting to that number. we want to protect those victims early in what we think is a developing genocide. it also means that because it is ongoing the data is soft. it is not easy to run around in a war zone with conflicts raging. isis is still in iraq and syria at the crime scene. there are huge flows of refugees. it is hard to get testimony. we do know enough, we know too much. the knights of columbus this week, or last week, released this report on their website and it has thousands of names of christians who have been killed, raped, or tortured because they are christian.

they believe it is only the tip of the iceberg. we are hearing new cases that are not in this report. i was talking to cardinal mccarrick, who has just gotten back from iraq, touring the refugee camps. he said a woman told him, and it is not in this report, that she saw her husband crucified on the door of their home. i work for an edition for relief and reconciliation in the middle east. it supports refugees from iraq and jordan. it seems like every family that we are helping has a story. i'm thinking of georgina, a

young gal that left iraq when isis came in. she left in a car with her grandmother. her parents, and three brothers and another car. they never arrived. only she and her grandmother arrived in jordan. she doesn't know what happened to her family, no doubt they were murdered by isis. there are mass graves in sinjar where the yazidis area is. there were also three orthodox churches there. no one knows what happened to those congregations. there is speculation that some are in the graves. some were seen being taken into mosul, meaning they would be killed or enslaved for sexual abuse. there are mass graves in syria. these names are not in. i'm trying to emphasize that we only have the tip of the iceberg because it is an ongoing genocide.

last summer, we learned there was a protestant pastor outside of aleppo that was crucified for refusing to recant his faith. so was his 12-year-old son after his fingertips were cut off by isis, they were both crucified. we think of isis as showing up in august of 2014 or june of 2014 -- that summer. but isis started as al qaeda in iraq in 2004. it morphed into something called the islamic state of iraq in 2006. al-baghdadi was put on the terrorist list in 2014.

here is eight years between the start of ic and isis. all this time, this group has been raping, torturing, and murdering, particularly targeting christians as a main civilian target. one of the biggest ways that they attack christians is by taking hostages for ransom. this is a silent one-by-one genocide. thousands of christians have been taken for ransom. many of them have been tortured and killed. bishops have been killed while trying to redeem priests. priests have been killed while trying to redeem their congregation that has been taken hostage. wives have been killed as they

bring ransom money for their husbands. hostages have been killed after the ransom has been paid. this has been going on all this time. one of my close friends from iraq, he has been featured in knights of columbus ads on television and was in town last week, he was taken hostage, tortured, beaten, shot in the leg, they broke his teeth, nose, back with hammers. he was finally released with ransom. entire towns have been taken captive. there are 200 christians now captive in syria. their church pays ransom for them to keep them alive. 20 of them recently escaped. there's another group of towns that were taken captive for ransom last year.

the final hostages in that case were released a couple of weeks ago. they -- isis, executed three of them and made a video of their execution to bring more money from the syrian church. they demanded money far beyond the capability of that church. in isis territory, there is no church, priest, or pastor. no impact christian congregation anywhere in isis control. this genocide designation by the u.s. government was welcome, but a surprise. since october, the united states state department has been giving indications that it is willing

to designate the yazidis religion as a victims of genocide, but not the christians. the yazidis have sever tremendously with thousands of women still enslaved. this continues throughout the fall, the reluctance and unwillingness to also include the christian congressman jeff fortenberry from nebraska who introduced the resolution that passed that bridget referred to that unanimously passed. his district houses the largest yazidis population in the united states. he asked on february 28 of secretary kerry if they would include christians in the genocide designation, which was mandated by congress to be made yesterday.

secretary kerry on february 24 said to the congressman "they are not killing them, but it is a removal." i can't think of a more cautious, neutral, and misleading term than "removal" in referring to the christians' experience with isis. one day before the deadline, the state department had a public announcement that they would not make the deadline. it was pretty apparent they were resistant. the reason why was, they explained that some point, is that isis did not have an intent to kill or destroy the christian community. that it actually respected christians and jews as people of the book -- meaning people of the bible.

this is, of course, the islamic tradition calling christians and jews people of the book. isis does not follow islamic tradition. it does not want to coexist peacefully with christians or non-muslims. this is repeated in today's "new york times" about the genocide designation yesterday. how state department officials said that christians had a different deal. the implication all along has been that of christians paid the islamic tax that isis was offering them the christians could have stayed and lived happily ever after in their homes. the christians refused and chose to leave. this is a phenomenal misconception. it is partly based on lack of knowledge.

the state department did not send fact-finding teams to the region to find out what was going on with the christians. colin powell did when he sent troops to darfur. the knights of columbus went to the region to gather facts and they used the same questionnaire that the powell teams used. about 30 experts and christian leaders, from cardinals to an expert for american progress on the left -- a whole array of christian leaders -- signed a letter asking secretary kerry

for a meeting so that they could come in and brief him about the situation on december 4. we never got an answer. one month before the deadline for genocide designation, the state department went to the knights of columbus, because they had been running television ads, and asked them to collect facts and present it to them in a report. which is what the report did. without waiting for the findings to come back to them, they visited, state department officials, went visiting state officials from iraq and told them genocide was out of the question. the state department did not have any interviews of christian leaders directly dealing with isis over the islamic tax issue. this is the pivotal issue over whether isis intended to destroy

christians as it did yazidis to meet the definition of the genocide convention. i did interview the syrian catholic priest who had dealings with isis, and he said that isis demanded that the adult christian men leave mosul in july 2014 and come to an auditorium to meet with them to learn the terms which isis expected. the christian men decided that it was a trap. that they were being rounded up for slaughter. in the best scenario, if they weren't killed, isis -- they did not trust isis to protect their women and girls. no one protects -- no one trusts isis. not even the state department. they thought the christians should have taken the deal. the concerns of these christian

leaders were validated a short time later when a dozen christian women and girls were taken as slaves and they have not been seen since. the church has not succeeded in ransoming them. 1000 yazidis women and girls have also been taken. that was about one month later. in october, isis released a slave price list giving out prices, sale prices, for the slaves. it is not only the amount of money designated and age, but also christian and ethnicity. these were the slaves being sold. instead of learning about the situation, the state department seemed to take, it is still in

the new york times today, seemed to take isis propaganda at state value -- at face value. the state department's own propaganda on the issue of christian attacks and islamic attacks, for christians to peacefully coexist with isis, is preposterous. we have all seen the beheading videos. isis does not want to coexist with christians. the state department's coordinator for counterterrorism, who worked for secretary kerry until a year ago, ambassador fernandes, wrote a study and called it a publicity stunt, a ploy for further atrocities that serves two purposes.

it makes al-baghdadi look more khalifa-like. and it allows them to either forcibly convert christians or to keep the women around for rape, or forcible marriage to their fighters, or to extract more money from the patriarchs who are in other cities with international financial networks. this genocide declaration yesterday is extremely important. it is important because of the moral power of it. it is the crime of crimes, the most heinous of all human rights crimes. this is reflected in the fact that it gives a moral boost to

the people that have been designated, christians, ethnic shia, and yazidis. today, i received a video thanking the united states from the father and children in his camp. it was wonderful to see that. they are following very closely. they feel, until now, forgotten. here is their christian civilization that was 2000 years old wiped out by a force of hatred that hasn't been seen before. every trace of their civilization is being systematically destroyed by isis. these are churches and monasteries that have withstood 1300 years, the invasions of the romans, mongols, arabs, turks, and so forth. they cannot withstand this alone. this needs to be recognized.

it can be of utmost significance, this designation, if there's a policy roadmap adopted by the administration. it has to be put into place now. not only is the situation dire on the ground in syria and iraq, but the government here is in transition, or will soon be in transition. we will lose one year between the lame-duck and the learning curve of the new administration. what can be done? what should be in the policy roadmap? there are judicial actions. secretary kerry alludes to that. he says he will start preserving and collecting evidence. that this is the business of the court. this is something that will be directed against those who aid

or abet cyber recruiters, financers, arms suppliers, artifact smugglers, all of these accomplices could someday be caught and tried. there is also military action. secretary kerry alludes to that as well, and talks about how they have an eye to the protection of the minority communities that have been named the victims of genocide by liberating their occupied territory and freeing them of isis. he names nineveh in iraq in particular. there are other actions that secretary kerry can take in his own portfolio in the state department.

he should adopt these and put them into action. i will discuss them quickly, because our time is short and i want to answer questions. here are five examples. first is refugee resettlement visas to the united states. christians from syria have been grossly underrepresented in the numbers are -- in the numbers resettled. they constituted 10% before the war. there have been only 60 christians and one yazidi over five years of syrian conflict that have gotten pieces to resettle here. -- gotten visas to resettle here. here there have been six

christians and no yazidis this year. they have a published database -- a published database that lists religion. we are bringing in 1000 refugees from syria. six christians is one family and zero yazidis. in iraq, most of the christians and yazidis are displaced in iraqi kurdistan. all of those years pushed them north into the city of nineveh. most of the christians remain in iraq or nineveh during -- most of them are now in a iraqi kurdistan with no resettlement rights. they are not refugees because they are within their own country, yet they cannot resettle in kurdistan. they do not have rights to drive a car, open a bank account, start a business. there has to be some kind of plan for them, for many of them. many of them are too traumatized

to go back to their home. in the event that their land is not liberated from isis, that is still a question, they will all have to be resettled in the west. there is nowhere in the region for them to go. the second thing would be land and property restitution. these minorities lost their homes, businesses, and farms. isis in many cases has passed them on to other people i selling them or giving them away. other people could have possession of them. the state department must press the governments involved to give priority recognition to the titles of the genocide victims. that is something for them to do. another item would be a place at the peace table. there is no christian voice at those peace talks. they are not at the table.

borders will be redrawn, constitutions drafted, and there is no voice or input. these minorities will be marginalized or shut out of whatever replaces the old syria. we have to speak up for them. humanitarian aid -- there is donor fatigue setting in, the minorities cannot go into you and camps because they are too dangerous for them. the persecution that has driven them out of their homes follows them into these camps. there is no christian in the camp and jordan run by the u.n.. these are mostly iraqi and syrian christians in jordan and the u.n. has large camps, probably the second largest city

of jordan is probably a refugee camp and there is not a single christian there. it's very dangerous for them. they are dependent on private aid and church eight and the u.s. government must ensure these genocide victims are not short changed. finally, reconstruction aid -- i say finally because that's my list of five but there are more things that can be done. if and when they do return to their homes after the defeat of isis, these genocide victims will need help reconstructing their homes and towns and churches. america's reconstruction aid to iraq after the military surge was largely diverted away from the christian areas by national and local government. the u.s. government must recognize the specific challenges facing these minorities and provide greater, more direct, more transparent and more oversight on their behalf.

secretary kerry said what dash wants to a race we must preserve and i cannot be -- once to you race we must preserve and that cannot be a reality until we do this. in his announcement today, secretary kerry took the pains to point out that he is not a judge or a prosecutor or jury. and that a judicial and formal legal procedure will be needed. but he has taken a bold step and there are things he can do we're going to need all of your help to get it done. thank you. [applause] we have some time for questions. we have a couple of microphones in the room and i would ask if you raise your hand and wait for the microphone so that it and be captured on the recording. identify yourself and please

give your affiliation as well. so -- we are ready for question. thank you. >> i have more than one question. how do we get involved and why do you think it took so long for them to recognize christians over others? >> say it again question mark at it we get involved question mark >> how do you think we as students should get involved? what you think it took so long to recognize the christians? >> yeah, students can do a lot. everybody can do a lot. we have the internet. we will be putting up petitions

and doing conferences and campaigns and letter writing and contacting your congressman. because this was so unexpected, we don't have a whole set of action points right now. when i say we, i mean a coalition of activists. i have worked all my life to achieve successes in this field and it has been done through working with teams of others, other coalitions. look on my website at hudson.org under nina shea and i write for national review quite frequent late will often put in those pieces, links to more information, links to petitions

that we need signatures for. until yesterday, we had a petition from the knights of columbus that got over 140,000 signatures including a lot of dignitaries. that was part of the pressure because all of this builds pressure. there was the fortenberry amendment that passed unanimously monday and that built pressure. there was the press conference we had last week with the knights of columbus for its report and that old pressure. the european parliament in january past with strong socialist support, a resolution also calling for the designation of genocide on behalf of the european parliament for christians and other minorities. all of that was building pressure and that's why there was this delay or the state department would have just declared a genocide back in october. that would have been the end of it.

that would have been very hurtful for the other minorities. basically, by so -- by selecting one, you are excluding the others by implication. why are they reluctant to do it? there are layers of reasons. one was the ostensible reason that they said it's because they did not think isis -- they think isis respects christians as people. that's basically their stated reason. the second layer may be that -- they don't want to -- feed enemy propaganda that this is a crusader war by sticking up

for christmas -- christians. that was, interestingly enough, the finding of the holocaust museum regarding the nazi holocaust, that the reason that president roosevelt did not single out the jews for concern for american concern at the time was that he did not want to feed anti-semitic propaganda and that the united states was acting on behalf of only the jews and that was absolutely catastrophic as we saw. ships of refugees were turned away at that time. there is a lot of parallel. we are trying to head this off before everybody is killed, frankly. those are a couple of reasons. >> the question here? >> i agree that this definition

of genocide adds a moral dimension to it. what are the consequences if the government does not act upon the designation? >> that's a great question. it gets to the core of activism. in a democracy, and an election year, there will be response. that's the beauty of democracy and elections. there is political pressure from the grassroots and that's all of us. if we choose to use our rights in this democracy -- if there is a good idea we had the facts on our side,

the advantage of having the facts on her side and once you have that and they are irrefutable, then the government, um, individual actors, not just some big iraq receipt but secretary kerry, president obama or ambassador samantha power who wrote a book on genocide. she literally wrote the book on genocide and u.s. policy. they are not going to want to risk their reputations to go down in history saying that they did nothing. it's a path, a path that they are traveling down. once you call it genocide, there is no going back. then you say will why didn't you do it? i am dismayed by all the media coverage that emphasizes that there are no legal requirements. the reason the media says that is that's what some of the unidentified state department officials are saying that there is no legal requirement to take any action. there may not be legal requirements but there are certainly moral requirements. i am not advocating a military

involvement or troops on the ground which some have been whispering. the economist wrote about that a couple of weeks ago that while this would mean for troops on the ground, some analysts say. i am not advocating that at all. i think that would be counterproductive. i do see these other things we can do to rescue the minority by giving them refugee status or by making sure they have a place at the peace talks so that they can say what they will need to stay. what kind of laws they want. freedom of religion, equal rights -- secretary kerry, in his talk, references equal rights and they say they're going to advocate them. we've got to get more tactical now and say here is the example of where it's needed. maybe that's the religious identity line on the national

identity card. you want to press the government to react. that is a tool for persecution, frankly. in any part of the world. >> one of the most stunning parts of your remarks is how syrian christian refugees have been accepted. even the body of syrian refugees that have been accepted, they are underrepresented. >> it's like 1%. >> to me, that's almost inexplicable in the sense that one of the barriers to accepting more has been the security question. you don't want to let in terrorist but here we have syrians who have been victimized

by terrorism, by isis terrorists and yet our own government, in a sense, is victimizing them yet again. do you think this genocide designation will somehow prod the bureaucracy to take action on this issue or is there a role for congress in rewriting some of the laws for refugees that could help some of these syrian and iraqi christians get out? >> yes, in fact there is legislation in the works now to designate a certain percentage of those refugees slots to the minorities that have been designated as genocide victims from syria. we are going to have to press them on everything because their approach now when i brought this to their attention last fall, the state department response has been, we've got to find out how many christians want to

apply and how many are being turned away from applying or having a hard time applying. i think that's the wrong approach. there are more than six christians who want to come to the united states. there is certainly more than 60 over the last five years. we should start with the premise that there are others who want to apply. we should go around the system we have in place. the problem here is that the u.s. refugee referral system is done through the u.n. the u.n. takes its refugees from their camps. as i said, the camps are too dangerous for these minorities because they are victims of genocide and they are targeted. it's too dangerous for them to

go there. the u.n. has every incentive to ship out the people it's working to feed and house in their camps so that's who gets referred. that's who has been referred to other western countries as well, not just us. it's a very pathetic situation. it needs to be, instead of interviewing refugees, some stranger going over there and interviewing them about them having problems with the u.n. when they hold the key to their future, they will not want to go on record not knowing who is asking them this question, attacking the u.n. because that's the only route out for them. >> it seems the grassroots is all in place in the churches.

every church and i remember of three of the moment, living in three different places, they all have missions, they feed people in this country and they do this for that country and they do all these missions. i have not heard one of my churches mention anything about the genocide or trying to get a groundswell of support to help. how would they proceed? why are we not hearing from the christian churches? >> that's an excellent question. you hit your finger on one of the big problem's. the grassroots are not active as they should we because the churches are not taking the lead in this to a large extent. some are. in my own church, i often don't hear about this either and we

pray for victims of natural disasters and the ebola disaster. it's never for this. i don't really understand it. one clue i got that was an eye-opener that a lot of the church leaders or active have so many other issues on their plate that they cannot make this their priority. again, this shows exactly why the genocide designation is so critical. then it does elevate it to a higher plane, demanding attention and action. again, i hope you look at the knights of columbus report and go on my website and look at my own writings and follow it and then you will get ideas about how you can take it to your three churches.

that would be great and everybody here has networks whether it's church networks or family networks or community networks. you can do the same thing. it's just what we're talking about, a lecture on it petitions or letter writing or e-mail to your member of congress. we are going to make a push for some of these action points and we have to do it fast because the transition in washington will distract everybody. we have a very little window here. >> what are the committees in the congress we should be following for these action points? which members of congress would take the lead? >> i was speaking to the state department yesterday after the speech. they were saying that we really do have to be concerned about appropriations. there is the funding to do some of this stuff it not everything

requires funding like getting christians at the peace table does not require or pressing but government for property titles, the iraqi government to respect property titles. that is not going to require funding but there will be some funding required for some of this. as that evolves, maybe in a year or a month from now, those committee members will be extremely important. even foreign affairs, the fortenberry bill that called it a genocide on monday which pushed it over the edge for the administration because it was totally bipartisan. 393 votes in favor and zero against in an election year, that's pretty good. that was started in the foreign affairs committee which does not have a whole lot of leverage. congressman fortenberry is involved in the appropriations

committee so they probably knew that. it's all interconnected. there are many avenues. >> any of the questions? i just want to emphasize that we all have a role. we have a copy of her most recent national review piece outside that you all can take. i would encourage you and especially young people who are here, to search online for the piste and posted to your facebook and this video will be posted on our website. i would encourage you to look back and share that link on your facebook so we can make an even wider audience aware and for those watching on c-span, i would encourage you to check out amina's page am a hudson institute and check the daily signal. we've got a couple of videos interviewing the priests that nina mentioned. stay tuned, i'm sure we will

hear more about it and nina will be alling this closely along with our holly here at heritage, james phillips. we have a few thank you gifts for you which is our tradition. i will let lauren present first. >> thank you. >> thank you so much on behalf of of the clare booth lose policy institute. i would like to present you our mug with the phrase -- no good deed goes unpunished. [laughter] something you are familiar with. i would like to give you a copy of our annual 2016 great american conservative women calendar. anyone can have a copy. >> excellent. >> i would like to give you finally our tote bag. >> thank you so much. thank you all for coming. [applause] >> across the lobby, we can continue the conversation with

nina so thank you for being here. >> that's wonderful. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this we can come of this he's been city tour takes you to montgomery, alabama. >> what happened to the 1958 campaign is that wallace really does try to reach his racial

forrate and try to campaign the poor and working-class. he gets the support of the naacp . unfortunately, he loses by pretty significant modern -- arjun -- margin. he is devastated by this loss. all he wants to be as governor. his upset by this loss. he considers it a failing. is theople ask him what take away from the 1958 campaign, he says i try to talk about progressive improvement, i try to talk about good roads and schools, and no one would listen. one i started talking about segregation, everybody started listening. >> wants to c-span2 the store on american history tv.

working without cable affiliates and cities across the country. >> monday night on "the communicators," a look at the fcc's lifeline program and it looked to bridge the digital divide between higher and lower income americans. with the policy director at the benton foundation and a visiting scholar at aei's center for communication technology. we're joined by the national journal technology reporter. >> low income consumers need access to broadband now. it is unclear to me that congress will be able to pass a support that is directly aimed at low income users. this congress has not been particularly supportive of folks

who are in poverty. the conversations on the hill have been hard to decipher. >> they're putting the cart before the horse. these are the drivers that are keeping low income people from adopting broadband service. this is the amount we believe. he don't know if we need nine dollars a month, or $45 a month. you want to make sure you're deploying the money intelligently. the fcc hasn't done a level of analysis. >> watch monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. wrightng up next, susan talks about -- susan rice talks about the president's trip to cuba. trump campaigned in arizona. at 7:00, the open our phone lines and look at today's headlines on washington journal.

>> president obama traveled to cuba this week and for the first visit by sitting u.s. president in nearly 90 years. it will include a delegation of house democrats led by nancy pelosi as well as several senators. the national security advisor more details on thursday while speaking the atlantic council. this is 35 minutes.

mr. kempe: good afternoon and welcome. i'm fred kempe, president and c.e.o. of the atlantic council i'm delighted that the chairman of the atlantic council is here today, governor huntsman. on his behalf, in particular on behalf of adrienne arshtt, founder of the adrienne arshtt center, and patricia marshall the ambassador and president, i'm delighted to welcome you to this special engagement, to be addressed by ambassador susan rice to the president's approach on the western hemisphere. ambassador rice we are immensely honored to be hosting you here at the atlantic council at this historic moment. one thing i always have to say

at events like this, on the record, join the conversation on twitter with #susanriceatac. we are also grateful to our partners in producing this event. thank you to the brookings institution, my friend represented by the -- the president and woodrow wilson international center of scholars and my friend jane harman, represented here by cynthia armson, director of the latin american program. thank you for collaborating with us to bring this to fruition. i also want to extend a special welcome to the esteemed ambassadors joining us in the audience this afternoon. ambassador rice, thank you for taking the time. we consider it a privilege to host you, not only because of

your key role in shaping the president's foreign policy agenda but also your tireless steadfast commitment to promoting leadership and engagement across the globe. since becoming president obama's national security advisor in 2013, you've been at the helm of a second term administration foreign policy that has significant achievements which have included u.scuba brokering a multilateral deal with iran and the successful conclusion of the t.p.p. agreement. we've had a role here with the atlantic council in all these issues. previously as u.s. permanent representative to the united nations, you were a powerful voice in advancing u.s. interests at the security council and furthering our country's commitment to diplomatic solutions where you helped win the stiffest u.n. sanctions ever against iran and north korea and brokered life-saving interventions in libya and cote d'ivoire. these positions in addition to others you've held at the state department and elsewhere

emblematic of a lifetime dedicated to common security and prosperity at home and abroad. your remarks today come days ahead of president obama's trip to cuba and argentina next monday. the first time in over 80 year that a sitting u.s. president will visit cuba. this is a historic turning point for the united states relations with cuba and with latin america broadly so we are terribly pleased to hear from you today on the administration's priorities for the western hemisphere. echoing the spirit and passion of our latin america center i wish to underscore we see the president's trip hugely significant, not just in the message about the relationship with cuba, as symbolic of the advances that the united states has made in engaging latin america during the obama administration. in the past decade, latin america has been a region transformed and our center has worked to examine what those

transformations mean for the hemisphere moving forward. with 70 million people entering the middle class and the area's status as one of the fastest growing trade partners, latin america holds huge promise. the obama administration has fully recognized this scenario with achievements such as concluding t.p.p., which includes three latin american nations, support for ending the farc conflict in colombia and initiatives to improve security in central america, president obama has woven a clear narrative. most notably he's improved our relations with all latin america by restarting the u.s.-cuba relationship and making continuous progress between the two countries. these issues are at the heart of the work of the arsht center from our february 2013 poll on evolving u.s. attitudes toward cuba to our recent work on reintegrating cuba into global financial institutions such as the interamerica development to

our policy brief this month about the outlook for argentina's energy sector. our center's narrative is optimistic because we believe that the united states is poised to engage even further on the vital political and economic connections that will continue to advance prosperity in the hemisphere. with that, i would like to welcome to the stage ambassador susan rice. [applause] ambassador rice: thank you, fred, and peter, for your work, and governor huntsman, it's always a great honor to be with you. i want to thank the organizations that fred just named that helped to put this event together and to everyone of you who are joining us here tonight.

i want to particularly salute our colleagues from the diplomatic corps who embody the close and growing ties between our countries. i'm glad to be back at the atlantic council and especially at the latin american center. what better way to celebrate st. patrick's tai than to give a speech on the americas. this organization focuses on the new latin america. i wanted to come here because 2016 is an especially significant, perhaps historic, year for the region. our hemisphere and the relationship between the united states and our partners across the americas is at a transformational moment. and president obama and all of us throughout his administration intend to make the most of it. so today i want to discuss this moment, the approach that got us

here, and how we plan to seize this opportunity during president obama's upcoming trip to cuba and argentina and for the remainder of his administration. i know some folks in latin america like to give really rather long speeches. but i'll do my best to keep this under eight hours. there's no denying that latin america faces serious challenges. too many people still live in poverty. too many voices still are silenced. too many communities are still wracked by violence. but what president obama said in santiago five years ago is even more true today. this is, he said, a region on the move. proud of its progress and ready to assume a greater role in world affairs. we see the new latin america in

its political transformation. thanks to the determination and sacrifice of citizens and activists, today almost all people across the hemisphere live in democracies. increasingly robust civil societies are demanding greater accountability of their leaders. over the past few years, governments that were hostile toward the united states have given way to ones that are more open to partnership. we see the new latin america in the way the region initially bounced back from the global financial crisis. today, we're witnessing a next wave of challenges, from slower growth and weaker commodity prices to strains on the middle class. but we're also seeing countries recognizing the need to become more resilient by reforming and diversifying their economies. thanks to stronger business

climates and greater openness to investment, many countries are better positioned than before to rebound from economic shocks. in a number of places, we must do more to preserve and build on the progress we've made, including lifting millions of people out of poverty over the last two decades. and the united states stands ready to work with our partners to meet these challenges. and that's because this transformation has been mirrored by a change in the united states -- united states' approach to the region. before president obama took office, our bilateral relationships were often strained. the united states' standing in latin america had suffered. suspicion of our motives was high an anti-american voices were ascendant and loud. if you'd asked some of our neighbors about the yankees, you'd have gotten roughly the same answer you'd get from a red sox fan.

[laughter] >> today, the american flag flies over our re-opened embassy in cuba. more americans are visiting cuba than at any time in the last 50 years. more american companies are looking to invest and do business in cuba. as we normalize relations, we have just announced reforms to make it easier for americans to travel to cuba and engage with the cuban people. yesterday marked the first direct mail delivery flight between our countries in 53 years. today, colombia is experiencing historic change, as president obama noted during president santos' visit last month. thanks to the courage and determination of the colombian people and with bipartisan support here for plan colombia,

colombia today is more stable, secure, and prosperous than it has been for decades. as we speak, colombia and the farc with the support of our special envoy, bernie aronson, are working to end half a century of civil war. here in north america, mexico has shown how a country can grow when its companies successfully integrate into the regional and global economy. the mexican government is implementing key energy reforms and is an important partner in combating climate change. as evidenced by last week's official visit by prime minister trudeau, the united states and canada are more closely aligned than we have been in years. again, we are addressing the challenge of climate change, where our countries are now fully united. and being married to a canadian, i can report that the

relationship between our countries is truly an enduring partnership of equals. even if certain busy americans don't always do their fair share of the housework. so, ladies and gentlemen, this is a seminal moment. how did we get here? this remarkable transformation is first and foremost a tribute to the hard work and sacrifice of millions of people across the hemisphere. nations made difficult decisions to reform, especially economically. some shouldered and still shoulder the burden of securing their communities against cartels and insurgents. but as our argentine friends know, it takes two to tango. during the 2008 campaign, then-senator obama promised a new approach, guided by what he called the simple principle that

what's good for the people of the americas is good for the united states. and we've worked hard to deliver on that vision. starting with the 2009 summit of the americas, president obama called far new era of cooperation and equal partnership based on mutual interests, mutual respect, and shared values. and on issue after issue we've worked constructively to build consensus on the issue, not one devised in washington but in dialogues across the hemisphere. we resisted falling into the traps of history and ideology that often stymied progress. president obama was very clear from the outset that he won't be bound by battles waged in many cases before he was even born. so at that first summit of the

americas, when certain leaders tried to revive the insult contest that too often characterized our relationships, we just refused to take the bait. we recognized the old debates between state-run companies and unchecked free markets, between the abuses of left wing insurgents and right wing paramilitaries for what they were and are, false dichotomies that don't reflect the realities of today. this may seem simple but it was actually quite novel. after the summit in trinidad and tobago, it was reported, leaders left here almost shell shocked by the lack of tension at this year's gathering. today the united states is more deeply engaged in latin america than we've been in decades. in fact, the relationships

between the united states and countries across the hemisphere are arguably as good as they've ever been. and given our ties of trade, culture, and family, our neighbors have never been more important to the prosperity and security of the united states. president obama's visit to latin america next week will build on this progress. on sunday, air force one will depart andrews air force base en route to havana, cuba. no national security advisor has ever said that before. [laughter] >> as fred said new york u.s. -- no u.s. president has traveled to cuba since calvin coolidge came on a battleship 88 years ago. he will continue to talk about

how to normalize contact between our government and increase contacts between our peoples. as he did when they met in panama last year, president obama will speak candidly about areas where we disagree with the cuban government, particularly human rights. as president obama has repeatedly said, we know that change will not come to cuba overnight. but the old approach of trying to isolate cuba for more than 50 years clearly didn't work. we believe that engagement, including greater trade, travel, and ties between americans and cubans is the best way to help create opportunity and spur progress for the cuban people. and that's why as part of his visit, the president will meet

with civil society leaders including human rights activists who give voice to the aspirations of the cuban people. he'll meet with cuban entrepreneurs, from a variety of sectors to discuss what we can do to help them start and grow their businesses. at the gran teatro, president obama will speak directly to the cuban people and attend a major league baseball exhibition game between the cuban national team and the tampa bay rays, another reminder of the ties we can strengthen between our peoples. on tuesday, president obama will travel to argentina, another visit that might have seemed unlikely not long ago. we've been impressed by many of the reforms president macri has initiated and believe that argentina can be a strong global partner on a range of issues from counternarcotics to climate change.

secretary of trade miguel braun recently told this forum that argentina is open for business and we are keen to expand our economic relationship. we expect that president obama and president macri will announce a number of new partnerships, including efforts to combat crime, drug traffic, promote sustainable energy development and fight climate change. as he has throughout the region, the president will hold a town hall with young argentines who are essential to argentina's growing regional and global rule. the president's visit to argentina falls, as you know, on the 40th anniversary of the 1976 military coup. to underscore our shared commitment to human rights, the president will visit the park de la memoria to honor the victims

of argentina's dirty war. in addition to the more than 4,000 documents the united states has released from that dark period, president obama, at the request of the argentine government, will announce a comprehensive effort to declassify additional documents, including for the first time military and intelligence records. on this anniversary -- [applause] -- on this anniversary and beyond, we are determined to do our part as argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation. so we believe this trip will be an historic and powerful demonstration of our nation's new approach to latin america. an approach that will guide us for the remainder of the obama administration. so allow me now to concentrate on three areas where we believe

the united states and our partners across the hemisphere can make further progress. first, we continue working to expand prosperity and opportunity for all our people and we have a strong foundation to build on. since president obama took office, we boosted u.s. exports to latin america by more than 40%. we encourage pacific alliance countries, chile, colombia, mexico, and peru, to continue their impressive progress in reducing trade barriers and integrating financial markets. and with the transpacific partnership, we're deepening our trade and investment ties with canada, chile, mexico, and peru. this is a good deal with strong labor and environmental standards. and we are committed to working with congress to ratify it.

few areas offer more promise for economic cooperation than clean energy. from canada to the caribbean, our hemisphere is especially vulnerable to climate change which is why we're working to implement the historic paris climate agreement as quickly as possible. we also have unique strengths when it comes to clean energy, which we're harnessing through our energy and climate partnership of the americas. brazil has been a leader in buy wrote fuels, chile is developing geothermal sources. haiti, after the devastating 2010 earthquake built the largest solar powered hospital in the world. in may, vice president biden will host our central american and caribbean partners to discuss how to do even more together to power our communities and protect our planet. as we strive to meet today's pressing economic challenges,

we're making economies more inclusive with new opportunities for entrepreneurs, farmers, and the small and medium-sized businesses that employ over half the hemisphere's work force. with the small business network of the americas, we'll help incubate more ideas, advise more aspiring entrepreneurs, and connect them to new opportunities. over the next three years, our women's entrepreneurship in the americas program is on track to help 100,000 women overcome barriers to starting a business. and through the president's feed the future initiative, we're supporting more than 113,000 latin american and caribbean farmers to emerge from poverty. we're also going to continue to keep investing in giving young people the skills and the training to succeed in the global economy.

through the president's young leaders of the americas initiative, we're helping entrepreneurs and activists connect, collaborate, and move forward and our 100,000 strong in the americas program aims to enable 100,000 u.s. students to study in latin america and 100,000 latin american students to study in the united states by 2020. over the past five years, we've seen more than a 10% increase in students participating in these vital cross cultural exchanges and we'll announce an expansion of that program next week. second, we can't have economic growth without security. in too many places, gangs and narco traffickers still brutally target civilians, law enforcement, and journalists. the front lines of this fight are in central america, in the northern triangle of el

salvador, guatemala, and honduras, whose leaders vice president biden recently hosted to deepen our cooperation. along with our partners, we're confronting this challenge by providing law enforcement with the equipment, training and technology they need to protect communities while also respecting human rights. we're improving coordination between countries, cracking down on the flow of guns across our southern border and squeezing cartel finances. here at home, we're working to reduce demand for drugs and reaching out to at-risk youth before they turn to narcotics an crime. we saw the human toll of central america's violence in the summer of 2014 when more than 68,000 unaccompanied, fearful children arrived at our southern border. to address this ongoing humanitarian crisis, we're

taking steps to deter future unauthorized migration and to mitigate the poverty that drives the underlying security concerns. working with congress, we've tripled our aid to central america, investing $750 million to help develop regional economies. at the same time, central american governments have committed their own resources to reduce corruption, improve governance, lower crime and violence, and create jobs. that's the kind of mutual effort this crisis demands. meanwhile, colombia is on the brink of peace. under the framework that president obama and president santos announced, paz colombia the united states will provide more than $450 million to help reinforce security gains, advance justice for victims, and

extend opportunity and the rule of law into areas denied them for decades. we're grateful to the cuban government for hosting the peace talks and we remain hopeful that an end to this conflict will mark the beginning of a new chapter of progress for colombia and the region. more broadly, we're stepping up our cooperation with regional partners to confront other shared security threats, including disease such as the zika virus, along with brazil and colombia, we're researching how to mitigate the virus' effects. the united states and canada will deploy public health experts to countries facing outbreaks of zika or similar diseases. this work will also help to enhance public health and scientific capabilities in the americas and strengthen our ability to combat other mosquito borne diseases like dengue and others.

and through our global health security agenda, will support partners across the region to better prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats before they become epidemics. finally, the united states will continue to stand strongly for democracy and human rights in the hemisphere. this is and always will be central to our foreign policy, not only in the americas, of course, but around the world. that means free and fair elections, a free press, robust civil society, and an independent judiciary. it means government that's transparent and accountable to the people. it means respecting the universal human rights and dignity of every man, woman, and child. including the descendants of indigenous people and immigrants alike.

no matter what they look like, no matter what their gender, no matter whom they love. our unwavering commitment to democracy and human rights will be plain when the president visits cuba. last week, i met with represents from civil society and human rights organizations, journalists, clergy, and young people. some of them shared stories of living in cuba. others spoke of the aspirations of their family and friends who remain there. it was powerful and at times emotional. i assured them that human rights will indeed be a key part of our agenda in cuba and that this administration, not the cuban government, will determine which civil society leaders the president meets with. the message president obama will deliver, privately and publicly, is simple. we believe the cuban people, like people everywhere, are best

served by genuine democracy. when they're free to choose their leaders, express their ideas, and practice their faith. so the united states will keep championing the human rights of all people, everywhere, including in cuba. in venezuela, we were heartened that the recent legislative elections were well administered and relatively peaceful. and the results were initially respected. but we remain deeply concerned by the marginalization of the legislature and the jailing of dissenters. we aim to see a dialogue between the government and the opposition so that they can work to address the country's pressing needs, especially its very serious economic challenges. across the americas, the united states will continue to support building those durable,

accountable institutions upon which democracy grows and basic services demand. chile is reforming its lobbying laws. mexico is strengthening its judiciary. paraguay now hosts -- excuse me, now posts all government salaries online. across brazil, citizens are raising their voices on behalf of principles that are at the core of democratic and just society, including rule of law, due process, and accountability. to navigate this challenging moment, brazilians must rely on the strength of their democratic institutions and their resilience as a people. throughout the region, through the open government partnership, we will keep promoting transparency and good governance. and as we help haiti to rebuild, we are urging haitians to hold

elections soon so that a representative government can meet the needs of its people. this is the vision that has guided president obama for the past seven years. partnerships, rooted in mutual interests and mutual respect. collaborations committed to expanding prosperity and opportunity. promoting our shared security and upholding democratic values and human rights. that's the vision the president will carry forward next week. in havana and buenos aires, we will be reminded that even more than our common interests, the peoples of the americas are united nearly one billion strong by shared values. we work together, study together, and protect our communities together.

we see this most clearly in the 55 million hispanic americans who enrich and strengthen our nation, a major reason why we must continue working for a fair and functioning immigration system. from alaska to tierra del fuego, we are bound together by common hopes, by our dreams for a better future for all of our children, a future where our sons and daughters can go to school without fearing the violence of drug traffickers. where young entrepreneur or farmer can have a shot at success. where a dissident can stand up and speak out free from persecution. this is our enduring vision. this is our solemn commitment. and as we seize this moment of promise for the americas, this is the future we aim to forge

together. thank you all very much. \[applause] >> on the next washington

presidentoll calls looks at the congressional elections and agenda. and wade henderson, president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil rights and human rights and current levy,

executive director of the freedom works foundation discussed the supreme court nomination of judge garland. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on face book and twitter. washington journal at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. court -- outside of the power. the idea that you of individual sitting on the court unfettered does notars is not -- pass the smell test when it comes to a modern democracy. q&a, we talk about the changes we would like to see on the supreme court including opening up oral arguments to cameras and imposing term limits on the justices and root wiring them to it here to the same code of ethics that other judges follow. >> the supreme court decisions affect all americans. the third branch of government has become so powerful.

the idea that issues on voting and marriage and health care and and women's rights, pregnancy discrimination, i could go on and on. these issues that 20 years ago, congress and the executive branch would get together and figure out a compromise and put together a bill, that does not happen anymore. given that the supreme court is making these very impactful decisions in our lives, the least we in the public can do is press them to comport themselves in a more open way. during campaign 2016, c-span takes you on the road to the white house as we follow the candidates on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org.

>> arizona it is a winner take all primary this tuesday for the republican presidential candidates. donald trump made a campaign stop in the state this weekend holding a rally outside of phoenix. he was joined by jeff dewitt, jan brewer, and joe arpaio. this is 40 minutes.

jeff dewitt: look at this crowd! [applause] jeff dewitt: what a great group of americans we have today! [applause] jeff dewitt: the establishment has called us the silent majority, and they tried to give us their candidates. but, we are not silent anymore, are we? [applause] jeff dewitt: thank god we've been given the gift of one of our brightest minds in our country, a true business success, the man who's going to make america great again. this is the proof of why more people have already voted in this election than all the people in 2008 and 2012. already, with 20 states to go, this and donald trump! [applause] jeff dewitt: we are so lucky to have him. i don't want to waste too much time, but i will introduce somebody else who is going to talk to you today. it is my pleasure to introduce to you, the author of "scorpions

for breakfast: my fight against special interests, liberal media, and cynical politicos to secure america's border," say hello to governor jan brewer! [applause] governor brewer: hello, everybody! this is so fabulous. i'm so honored to be here today with you in support of the next president of the united states, donald trump. i've known donald for a long time. he's a man that i know has so much integrity, a thoughtful, kind person. when you sit down with donald and you talk to him, he listens. he has listened to all of you.

[applause] governor brewer: we have a president who has failed the american people. it is time for a change. we here in arizona are going to propel donald trump to that seat. you know donald has a terrific agenda. initiatives for bringing our economy back, he will grow jobs and look out for small business, he will restructure the tax structure and not only that, he is going to build a fence. [applause] [crowd chanting "build a wall"]

governor brewer: we are the people. our votes count. donald trump has over 2 million more votes than any of the other candidates going into the primary. we will have a big victory on tuesday. and president trump will be back to visit us and we will be happy and we will be protected. so, thank you all very, very much for all your support. is this not dropdead gorgeous? it's beautiful. today, we have with us, the toughest sheriff in america. [applause]

governor brewer: sheriff joe will come up here and talk to you in his hometown. please welcome, sheriff joe arpaio! [applause] sheriff arpaio: thank you. america is now going to realize where fountain hills, arizona is. isn't it great that our next president picked this great town? actually, don't tell anybody, for security reasons, but you can see my house from here. you know how close i am. my wife can see me on the porch.

thank you for coming. we had a little problem with demonstrators trying to disrupt -- [crowd boos] sheriff arpaio: because of them, you had to get a little more sunshine, but we made it. three of them are in jail. [applause] sheriff arpaio: if they think they are going to intimidate you and the next president of the united states, it's not going to happen. not in this town. i want to do this quick because our next president is waiting.

i want to say a couple of things about donald trump. i've been involved in a lot of presidential campaigns. you know that. i met donald when he was here the first time in july. thousands of people came out to see him. thousands. when i first introduced him. my gut feeling told me he is different. he's going to do things differently. i'm a senior citizen, not a psychiatrist or anything, but i do have a gut feeling. from day one, i knew this was the guy. this was the guy. [applause] and i have done some introductions of him across the country and i am so proud of him. i know that all of you are

because at least we've got somebody who is not afraid to speak out. or is politically correct. or doesn't have great issues like illegal immigration. and he says he is going to build a wall, yeah, it is going to be built, and i'll tell you what, if they don't pay for that wall, then we should take away their foreign aid in mexico. then they will pay. and another thing, since i lived in mexico as a diplomatic attache and i was overseas for many years, guests who is the most import person next to the president to deal with international affairs? that is the secretary of state.

so where was hillary? how many times has she gone to mexico? and the president who stopped the drug traffic and the illegal immigration problem? and why would a former president, vicente fox, make vicious, vicious, it's about somebody who is running for president, and that person would happen to be mr. trump? i don't see anybody get excited about that. but we made a couple of comments at a rally and they make it a big issue. but anyway, i've got enough to say right now, but i want to introduce donald trump, our next president of the united states. thank you. ♪ >> ♪ y'all ready for this? ♪ ♪

mr. trump: whoa! whoa! oh, thank you, folks. thank you you very much, folks. oh, what a crowd this is! thank you all, very much. sheriff joe, i want to thank you. you have some sheriff. there are no games with this sheriff, that's for sure. and jan, thank you so much, and jeff, boy oh boy, we have so much support, and on tuesday, we've got to make that movement go forward. the establishment, they don't know what they're doing. they have no clue. they don't how to win.

they pick the people that absolutely will never win with the people they talk about. go out on tuesday and vote, i will never let you down. [applause] crowd: trump! trump! trump! mr. trump: and i want to tell you, you know, so much about illegal immigration and so much has been mentioned about it and talked about it and these politicians are all talk, no action, they are never going to do anything, and they are only going to pick this up because when i went and i announced that i was running for president, i said, you know, his country is a big, big problem with illegal immigration, and all of a

sudden, we started talking about it, and then we had bad things happening, and there was crime and you had so many killings and so much crime. drugs were pouring through the border, people are now seeing it, and you know what? we are going to build a wall and we are going to stop it. it's going to end. [applause] mr. trump: i only wish these cameras -- because there is nothing as dishonest as the media, that i can tell you. i only wish these cameramen would spin around and show the kind of people that we have.

the numbers of people that we have here. i just wish that for once, they would do it, because you know what? we have a silent majority that is no longer so silent. it is now the loud, noisy minority, and we are going to be heard. we are going to be heard. so today, one of the very big stories was about the border agents, they say they support trump, that trump is the only one running that has their backs, ok? and they can do the job, but they don't get support from the politicians. now why? i am still funding my campaign, i am putting up my own money, and these guys, i look at them all up and down, we started with 17 and now we are down to three. don't we love that? don't we love it? don't we love that? we lost the future of the republican party last tuesday in florida, you know, he was the future, he was the future of the

republican party, except i won florida in a landslide because people are tired of what politicians are doing to the country, remember that. they are tired of it. they are sick and tired of it. remember obama? change! this is going to be real change and we are going to have a border and unless you have a border, you don't have a country, folks, you don't have a country. remember that. now it, in addition, and we will go through a list of things very quickly, because frankly, it doesn't take a long time, we are going to end, and core, education will be local. everybody wants it. we don't want our children educated by bureaucrats from

washington, d.c., so we end common core education local. we're going to terminate obamacare. we are going to repeal it and replace it with great health care for far less money. that's going to happen. that is going to happen. we're going to protect our second amendment. our second amendment. remember, it is under siege like never before and we are going to protect it. you know, in paris, they have the toughest gun laws in the world, the world, no tougher gun laws than anywhere in the world, tough. and guess what? 130 people dead, and no bullets going in the opposite direction. the same thing happened in california. 14 people. radicalize people. she probably radicalized him. they went in and killed people that they worked with, that they supposedly liked. it is not going to happen anymore, folks.

it is not going to happen. we are going to be smart, we are going to be vigilant, we are going to be smart people, we are going to be proud of our country again. our military is depleted. our military is exhausted. we don't replenish. we take, we don't replenish. we send the best equipment in the world over to wherever we are sending it. we don't even know. i don't even think we know where we are sending it. and a bullitt gets fired in the air and the enemy takes over this great equipment and then they have better equipment than we do and they are using our equipment. those days are done. those days are done. [applause] mr. trump: we are going to rebuild our military. it is going to be bigger, better, and stronger than ever, and hopefully nobody, nobody

will have to use it. nobody, and i mean nobody, is going to mess with us anymore. crowd: usa! usa! usa! usa! >> i love you! mr. trump: i love you, too. i love you, too. i have such a soft spot for this country. in alabama, we had 35,000 people, oklahoma, no matter where we go, we have these massive crowds. and by the way, are we winning or what? look at the numbers!

you know it is really, it is really amazing, you know to me, it is really amazing. we have won 20 states, and we have one in massive landslides -- have won in massive landslides. i won in new hampshire, i wasn't supposed to win in new hampshire, and ted cruz, he wasn't born in this country, folks, and he shouldn't even be in this country, and he shouldn't be in this group that we are talking about. but we win in a massive landslide, and we go to south carolina were we have the evangelicals. 68%. lyin' ted, we call him lyin' ted. so he comes up with a bible and he puts it down and you know

what? he starts lying. and you know what? the evangelicals don't like liars. that was going to be an easy victory and trump wins it in a landslide. in a landslide. and then one after another, we go and we win in nevada, a landslide, we win in the sec, we did so great, and we had a great day on tuesday. we won 5, 5. and that i heard ted cruz the other day, saying, i am the only one who can stop trump, i am the only one. do you ever hear this guy? and he said, i beat him five times, and i thought, wait a minute, i beat him 20 times. lyin' ted, lyin' ted. and you know what, i will tell you, john kasich is a nice guy,

but he is done. as far as arizona is concerned, john kasich is very, very weak as you know. and another thing that i don't like, he approved nafta. when you approve nafta, a lot of your businesses had left. he is also in favor of tpp, and so, by the way, is ted cruz. tpp is a disaster. tpp is the transpacific partnership, it is a disaster, it is going to take away the auto industry, it is a disaster, one you don't want it. you don't do trade with massive a amounts of countries, folks, you do it one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. if they don't cooperate, then you put them in the shed, and you then maybe we let them come are in back.

a you you know, i built a great company, a massive company, a fantastic company, and i filed, a i did my filings, and oh, they a a were so unhappy with it. in it is a good company, it is a a phenomenal comp veryany, you a you little debt, a lot of cash flow. are you i say this not a you are you to brag, but to show you that we need this. you are you will you will we you are you know you and you want a we have $19 trillion in debt, $19 trillion.

who even knows what one trillion is? and we have $19 trillion in debt, going to $21 trillion, and a debt, going to $21 trillion, and they just approved in the you congress a budget, it is a you a you disaster, they call it will the omnibus, the omnibus, it is a disaster, obamacare is a and disaster, there are people coming into the united states, we have no idea who they are, and it funds the illegal immigrants coming in, they come right through arizona. all of these things are funded with a budget that they approved, and i think it took them, like, 12 minutes to approve the budget. not going to happen anymore, folks, not going to happen. so here is story, bottom line, the bottom line. it is, first of all, it is great to be with you. this is incredible. we expected, and this was just set up result, and we expected -- and by the way, i don't know if you know, last night we had an unbelievable evening in salt lake city, utah, and i hope they go with us, i hope they go with us. i said we have to stop there, i stopped, and we had an amazing evening there. but let me just tell you that the way that i finished, it is

simple, our country is not winning anymore. our trade is a disaster. china, what china has done to and our country, china has been rebuilt because of the money and the jobs we have lost and the money we have given them. we have rebuild china and they know it. i have many friends from china. i don't have any objection to china, i think it's wonderful, i am angry at our people, not their people, if you can get away with it. so look, we've rebuild china. it is not free trade, it is not anything, this is horrible, stupid trade. when you have $500 billion a year, folks, we've got to get smart. i have carl icon, i have the greatest negotiators in the world, -- carl icahn, i have the greatest negotiators in the world. we had pfizer, a great company, pfizer, they just announced they

are leaving. they are a huge drug company. they announced they are going to ireland. companies are going to mexico. nabisco, ford, where are they going? mexico. mexico, mark my words, exit code is a small version of china. we better get smart and we better get smart quickly -- mexico, mark my words, mexico is a small version of china. we better get smart and we better get smart quickly. my daughter, ivanka, she told me to act presidential, act presidential. she said, in the next debate, act presidential. i didn't attack marco, i didn't attack little marko, and i didn't attack ted, lyin' ted, lyin' ted. but ted cruz, he is not going to

be the right guy, he is not going anywhere, so it is not going to happen. i say we make is before the convention, by the way. you have these stiffs like mitt romney. the guy is a total stiff. did he let us down? this guy is a loser. did he let us down? i mean, here is a guy, he goes up, he is so devastated, he forgot the campaign in the final month, he gave it to obama. believe me, i am going to

win, i am going to beat hillary, but let me tell you, beating obama four years ago was easier than beating hillary clinton now, believe me. and mitt romney choked. pure and simple. he choked, he choked like a dog, and that's not going to happen. that's not good to happen with me. so here's the story. here's the story. come on back, folks. come on back. you left. we had incompetent leadership. you left. some folks said, we are not coming back, we had incompetent leadership, but now we can bring you back. you went to mexico, will bring you back. but i'm a conservative, and i am smart, and look, i spent $48 million in new hampshire, -- jeb spent $48 million in new hampshire, and i spent some money, too, my own money, but i won.

he is a joke. people who have no clue about money or deals that have not read "the art of the deal" in all fairness, it is not of interest to them. look at john kerry. look at the deal he made with iran. one of the worst deals ever negotiated. one of the worst deals ever negotiated. look at it, it is a disgrace, it is an embarrassment. by the way, on that deal, we should have never, ever, even started, until we got those prisoners back, we should have gotten them back years ago, and once we got them back, we should have told them, by the way, the $150 billion, no, we are a debtor's nation, folks. after about two days of turmoil, we would have saved, believe me, 150 billion dollars. that deal is such an embarrassment.

well, our trade deals are just like that. our trained deals are just like that. bowe bergdahl, he is just like that. bergdahl, he is a traitor. we get bergdahl, and we get to give them five of the great killers that they have coveted. those guys are now back on the battlefield, trying to kill us all, and we've got a traitor. big deal. and by the way, a traitor that has supposedly, supposedly, five or six young beautiful soldiers were killed trying to get him back. that is our deal. that is the way we negotiate. that is not going to happen anymore. not going to happen anymore. so what we are going to do is we are going to tell our wonderful businesses that deserted us, they left us, and i'm not even blaming them, they had no reason not to, because nobody talks -- you think somebody went to carry

carrier and said, you listen coming you let all of these people go, don't go to mexico? they don't do that. so they move into mexico, and i would say, and i would do it myself, i know it is not presidential, it is not presidential, it is not presidential of the president of the united states to call up the president of carrier, "hello, this is the president." but this is so much fun for me. please, don't take that away. don't take that away from me. i love deals. so whether it is one of me or one of my representative's, i know the good ones, i know the bad ones, that whether it is one of these killers or one of some real for me, please, let me do it. let me do it, please.

so i call up, and they would say, the president of the united states is calling the president of carrier, get them on the phone, i would say, "good luck in mexico, enjoy your stay, but here is the story, you let go of 1400 people that helped to build your company, and i really love, by the way, i really love the new pictures of your facility. every single air conditioning unit that you make, every single one, as it crosses the border, and we are going to have a real border, because we are going to have a wall, we are going to have a real border, we are going to have a big, beautiful wall that nobody is crossing, just in case you had any questions, don't worry about the tunnels and stuff, nobody is going over it and nobody is going over it and we are going to have a big, beautiful door, but people are going to be coming into our country legally, legally, legally, so i tell the head of

carrier, everything will unit that you make in mexico and that you sell in the united states, we are going to put a 35% tax on that unit, and i hope it works out well for you." and here is what is going to happen, they are going to have lobbyists call me, but i didn't take any money, they are going to have special interest, and, and i didn't take any money, they are going to have donors, donors, donors, but i didn't take any money, i don't give a damn for them, folks. i care about you. and here is what is going to happen. within 24 hours of that phone call, ahead of carrier and ford and so many other companies, i mean, you just take a look, i could give you a list and you could read them all day, the head of nabisco, leaving chicago with their plant, they are headed to mexico, no more

oreos for us, no more oreos to eat. so here is what is going to happen, folks, i will get a call within 24 hours, a president of carrier, "mr. president, we have decided to stay in the united states." and then i would say, "thank you very much. and i don't want it in phoenix, arizona, or anywhere in particular, we just want it in the united states." this is going to happen a lot. we don't win anymore. we don't win at anything. we don't win at anything. we don't win at anything. we are going to beat isis. how about general george patton? he is too tough. he is too tough. he couldn't be a general anymore because he is too tough. he is not politically correct. by the way, chipping away, just like i said, chipping away at the second amendment, they are chipping away at christianity, they are chipping away at our religion, they are not going to have it anymore. when it comes to christmas time, they are going to put up a

sign that says, "merry, merry, merry christmas!" we are totally impotent as a country. in we are going to knock the hell out of isis and we are going to rebuild our country, we going to rebuild our country. our country is going to be so strong. somebody at that company that stole the equipment had

political connections to these characters that i run against. we are going to have a great military and we are going to finally, finally take care of our great veterans, we're going to take care of them. so we are going to win with the military, we are going to win. oh, thank you, look at you. look at you. usa is right. usa. crowd: usa! usa! usa! mr. trump: so, folks, we are going to start winning again. we are going to win with our military, we are going to win for our vets, we're going to win for our vets, right? we are going to win for our vets, we're going to win with our military, we are going to win with a obamacare, we are going to get rid of it and going to make something much better, we're going to win with every aspect of our lives.

we're going to win big league with our second amendment. we are going to keep winning at every level. we are going to win so much that you are going to common you are going to say, "is the president, we are winning so much, i can't stand it anymore," and i'm good say, "i don't care." this is for the people of phoenix, and the people of arizona, we're going to win a for our border, and we are going to build a wall, and ladies and gentlemen, i love you. you have to go out. you have to vote on tuesday. you will never be disappointed with me. i will never disappoint you. we are going to bring our country back. we are to take our country back. we are going to have victories again. you're going to be so proud of your family, yourself, your country. we are going to win again all the time. thank you very much. i love you. i love you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you, everybody. ♪

>> ♪ y'all ready for this? ♪ mr. trump: thank you, everybody. go out and vote! go vote! ♪ >> ♪ yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah, yeah! ♪ ♪ >> ♪ yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah, yeah! ♪ >> you're in campaign 2016,

c-span takes you on the road to the white house. as we follow the candidates on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> as a director of military affairs here in ohio, many veterans have come into my office to talk about who they are going to vote for. it is your civic duty to get out and vote. many things are at stake with these elections so get out, do your research, and vote for the

candidate that best supports -- issues.f is one -- bernie sanders of the most important candidates in the field. he is a powerful alternative to means dream politicians. he has aggressive ideas that are important for our country. i would encourage everyone to go out and support bernie if possible. thats important issue democrats feel are important is college tuition and jobs. they need to know how they will pay for college as well as what their future will look like and the job market. as president of the college democrats, i feel those are the biggest issues. >> i originally was going to vote for bernie sanders. i ended up voting for hillary

because she seems more knowledgeable and she has been in the political environment before. has been my country's leader as secretary of state. she is in the inner workings of the white house and how the game goes. here on c-span this morning, washington journal is then a look at the supreme court vacancy with alliance for justice president aaron. on newsmakers. later, we will show you president obama's nomination of federal judge merrick garland to serve on the supreme court followed by reaction from members of congress. --coming up on c-span's washington journal, roll call right all caps about the presidential campaign and its potential impact on the agenda. wade henderson with the leadership conference on civil and human rights joints hurt levy of the freedom works foundation for a discussion on

the supreme court on the nomination of federal judge garland. and later, tom hart ♪ host: good morning, the first family the white house this afternoon for a three-day trip to cuba. it will mark the first time a u.s. president has visited the island nation in 80 years. in fact, calvin coolidge was the last president to be in cuba. morning, march 20. the house is in session this week. the senate is in reset -- recess. top leaders nabbing a strategy to deraina