appeals throughout the state of wisconsin by saying your lawyer told you strategy after strategy you can't do over. they never addressed any of the witnesses that proved it was impossible for me to be two places at one time. they never addressed that. and me in prison i got to the point where i was in a cycle just like many of the people i was in prison with. i just didn't want to deal with my case. as i'm talking to my mother saying they denied another appeal i don't understand why. as soon as i got off the phone my cellmate said get off the top bunk. he was listening to everything i said on the phone because he was right on the bottom bunk. he said listen, i have been in this sell with you almost section months. i have never heard you say anything about innocence, your case, you don't do anything but work out, play basketball and play chess.

you act like you are in college. it wasn't until i had that conversation with him that i saw myself in the same cycle of giving up and not thinking about anything else. and he said let me see your transcripts, will the me see your files. i gave them to him that day, many of which were unopened and still in the envelope from my attorneys because i just wasn't strong enough to deal with the reality of being in prison for 28 years with a mandatory relief of 2019. i was in the strong enough to take my own life and wasn't strong enough to deal with the reality of the place i was in. over the course of a week we got off lockdown and he read the transcripts and my police reports and i again went out and played basketball, chess and worked out. that was my therapeutic way of

not dealing with it. i came back to the cell one day and he had all the paperwork spread out and he had the police reports in hand and he said sit down. he threw me a notepad and pen and he said look, i'm not getting out of this place. you are in here for some racist crap with no evidence. and you are going to play chess, you are working out and you are giving up. it is like you are 18 or 19. you have the rest of your life ahead of you. you need to work on fighting for your innocence. i have never seen a case so devoid of evidence. that day i put down my basketball shoes and got rid much the chess board which i love, i made it. i went to law library and started to craft my on version of a petition to get myself home.

i started off writing letters to everyone. naacp, innocence projects, oprah. i straight to get stedman's address. trying to tell everyone i was innocent but i realized that. as the years went by my writing got better. my research got better. so i went from saying look i'm innocent, get me out to i'm innocent. strickland versus washington is a case where a lawyer was ineffective and his rights were denied because the attorney didn't do also job. as i started writing the letters i got a response from the wisconsin innocence project. the director of the project came and saw me with two law students in school at the time and said do you mind if we take your case.

i almost fell over like do i mind? i didn't know you had to ask. i told them absolutely. they took my case and they started litigating my case it court. they did this federally and to not be too confusing. once you exhaust the remedies in state court and appeal you have the opportunity to file in the federal court saying there are constitutional news in the conviction and second circuit granted me a certificate to appeal and wisconsin innocence project appealed my conviction all the way to the seventh circuit where a three-panel judges agreed it overturn the conviction. as i listened to them argue my conviction, i was on the phone in prison with shackles on listening to them argue on my behalf in the seventh circuit in chicago and almost to the year i

was released. that was another fight that started. because now i'm released. i don't have a record. record expunged. but how do you expunge 10 years that are missing from your life? while doing a report cbs asked me it give pictures and i went to my mother's house and not only to eat her food but get these pictures and i looked through the photo album and from when i was a baby up until 17 years old when i graduated high school there are pictures and they do not start again until i was 27 years. that, as strong as i am, almost made me remove myself from the room and go cry. but it put into perspective just how you can't erase that.

i got out and i noticed when i got out that my aunts and my mother, they -- their emotions were very high and very sensitive to me. they just didn't know, right? all of the misconceptions that you believe from prison and people who go to prison you don't know. because you know we are not set up once we are released from prison to do very well. so they thought the same about me as well. i just felt so god awful that i put them through this. i made the decision to go sneak and go to this party and although i was not guilty, i felt so guilty that when my mother had to go to church and they would ask where was her son and that dark cloud was over her head and she would be brought to

tears. so i can't tell you the day that i knew i would be an attorney in the state of new york but i did know that i owed that woman. i owed her for the prison phone calls. i owed her for the support. i owed her for giving me birth twice. one time to get me here and for continuing to keep my spirit alive as i sat for 10 years in a prison. i got up off the couch in 2007 a month after was released and i walked three miles and enrolled in south suburban community college. three miles isn't quite that long but in chicago in february it is long. i'm telling you. the wind was blowing. i had a thin coat on. i wanted to be able to one day do what i'm doing now and

contribute to be able to talk to people who are going through things and even talk to people before they go through things to help them understand that this is real and this is possible. i graduated in 2009 from south suburban. i was able to meet someone who introduced me to someone who hired me as a full-time investigator at the federal public defenders office. i got that job and that job really contributed to my role as a person. i went from being in prison in 2007 and in 2010 i'm going into preference and taking statements and helping people and contributing. encouraged me to to continue to go to school. i went it school at night and my schedule was ridiculous now that i get the opportunity to think about it. i would get up at 5:00, get to work about 6:30 before anyone got this and heard me copying

100 papers from a back, go it work during the day 9:00 it 5:00 and serve subpoenas and stuff like that in chicago. i never really realized how many loose dogs were around the city until i started serving subpoenas as an investigator. i did that. i would come back into the office and read from 5:00 to 6:00 and go to school from 6:00 to 9:30. i would get home about 11:30 and repeat the process. i did that for five years. that was undergrad at roosevelt and the three years at college. i'm saying that specifically for you kids out here. you are going to have obstacles always in life but you are going to have it decide whether you go around it, go over it or right through it. because you are going to have it keep going. that is -- look, that is a real message. it is in the scripted. that is what i had to do. i didn't know i would be here

today as an attorney but i he knew i wanted to do something and if you read the big of jarrett adams it wouldn't say wrongfully convicted got out the end. i was able to get through law school by continuing to network and meet great people. i met great attorneys. graduating law school was an outstanding feeling but what was better is clerking in the second circuit the circuit that overturned my conviction. other times i would have to ask the clerk in the courtroom with me what was going on in court because he was day dreaming back to when i was in a maximum security prison listening on the phone to attorneys arguing my details for my freedom and i'm in the same courtroom less than 10 years later as a graduating law student on his way to becoming a lawyer.

it made me pinch myself. judge ann williams was my mentor. i met her as i started law school because i applied for the chicago bar scholarship foundation which i won and she was one of the deciding vote members. and that was very important for me, because again nothing on my record but the tentacles of a wrongful conviction will almost reach you trevor. i didn't have a bank account and i didn't find credit and they didn't find me credit worthy and the last known address was a maximum security prison in wisconsin. while most were getting student loan money and buying starbucks was bringing folgers crystals and paying my way through because of the difficulties i endured with money. so that scholarship i received from the chicago bar foundation

was very, very important to getting me where i am today. i never lost touch with that relationship. i continued to send judge williams e-mails, updates and let her know how i was doing and that gave me the opportunity to clerk on the same circuit that overturned my conviction. i spent the next six months after i clerked in the seventh circuit in the southern district of new york and clerked for another amazing judge who set me down and told me you know, things that definitely i needed to know as a young person starting a legal career. the bar has absolutely nothing to do with being a lawyer. my goodness, it just doesn't. but it is necessary and you have to do what you need to in order to get by and that is what i did but i needed that community of support and i gotta continuously

to gosh -- got that to where i am where i am. i passed the bar and started working for the innocence project and i could percentage myself as i walk through the door and i have my case files of people who i'm fighting for their innocence and here it is not even 10 years ago i was fighting for my own innocence. i don't want to seem as if what i did was so amazing and no one else can do it. you can. you have to believe in yourself. the one person that should never stop believing in you is you. is you. so, i know this is a talk about my life and my story but whenever i'm in a room with kids close to my age i make sure i address you and let you know that you have to push forward. i know that my time is short and

i have a timer up here to make sure i stay within the time limit. i will close by saying this. i had a bird's eye view of the criminal justice system. it is not a place of corrections. it is a place of warehouse. the two scariest things i saw in prison were not violence. one was people getting out in went time and coming right back in the summer because i was there so long i would see these same people come right back and i would have conversations with them and, you know, what happened, man? basically what i got from what they were telling me was they were first convicted from a crime in their community. they were in prison with no skills at all being taught to them. they were released where? right back in the community where the criticism happened. and -- where the crime happened and they were back as a result

of that. that is what is happening in our prisons. the second thing that shook me as i'm watching a couple of guys play basketball i'm noticing that they are calling each other names and i'm thinking it nicknames. people in prison have nick names. they refer to each other as pops, old man, grand pops and son. i didn't learn until a month later they were in the neck names. that was a grandfather, a father and a son in one prison not on the same crime. could you imagine how their family looks like right now? if we continue to ban he shall people from -- banish people how can we expect to stop the senseless gun violence that is plaguing our communities. how do we ever expect to bridge

the gap of the police in the community? women are strong but they are not strong enough to be a father and a mother. there are a lot of fathers in prison. some rightfully but a lot just because they were in the back seat of a car that happened to have a couple of shots and enormous number of men and increasingly women are in prison for drugs, for pot. and now you are telling me you can sell it and create pharmacies legally but they are still in prison? that is a head scratcher. you can't put people in pitcher, teach them nothing and release them and tell them to do good. it doesn't make sense. you don't have to be an attorney or rocket scientist to understand that this system is broken and has been broken since

its inception. it is flawed. now people are speaking about it but they are speaking about it because it is not so much a racial color line. it is access to justice. if you are poor and you can't put up a defense your chances of going to prison are high. an attorney i won't name told me this as i was going through law school. he said i would rather be rich as hell than guilty as hell than poor as hell and innocent as hell. that is truth in the reality of it. the people we release from prison are going right back into our communities and boil over and into everyone's neighborhood and everyone must take notice and do something. i don't care if you are a librarian or doctor have the conversations at the water fountain.

because what you do, what you decide, who you vote for does have an effect. speak up because we all will be here and be gone some day but we are going to leave it for the next generation. how do you want to leave it? do you want to continue to be the greatest country in the world and also the greatest im prisoner in the world? we can't say there are 1.some million people worthy of banishing. i work some prestigious judge and smart people i have ever met were right there in prison with a prison number on their chest. very smart men and we don't know what we are benefiting from society. i will reach you by reaching this. how do we know if one of these young men or women in prison

forever won't have the ground breaking idea for a medication that can cure cancer, for something that can contribute to society. some people are banished and placed in these situations simply by the demographics of where they are born and it shouldn't be that way. i thank you for your time and appreciate coming out. thank you all. [applause] >> i'm the director of program being at the city club and we are enjoying a friday forum with jared adams attorney and

co-founder of life after justice. we are welcoming questions from everyone. members, guests, students or those on radio broadcast, webcast or new life simulcast at the library. if you would like to tweet a question tweet it at the city club and our staff will try to work it into the forum. we want to remind you the questions should be brief and to the point and actually questions. holding our microphones are marketing and outreach faye walker and wesly allen. may we have the first question, please. >> good afternoon. i'm so happy that you are here and i'm glad to see the young people here to hear your important emergency. i'm a retired school teacher and so often students would come in front of me with the same story that you have. that are frustrated and have been falsely accused of

something and the question is, what can a teacher say to a student who has stopped believing in himself or herself and no longer has his or her eyes on the prize, just ready to give up? what would you say to a teacher who try to help that student? >> well, first thank you for your question. teachers have one of the most difficult jobs in society. the attention span of teenagers is like so i would encourage you to do this. you as a teacher have in some ways more of an effect on a student's life than their parents because you are around them and see them so much. you can't give up. if they give up, that is within thing. but you cannot give up encouraging them. it is a full-time job.

it is. i'm sure that you take a lot of stories home with you as a teacher and it weighs heavily on your heart but you have to continue it encourage them and continue to tell them stories. i'm not the only young black man had has overcome the odds although i don't get as much air time as if i was a rapper. there are stories that you can find to continue to encourage these kids to push forward. i really don't have the concrete answer for you other than to say that faith is believing until it becomes true. so, continue to beg that they have favorite and push forward. thank you for the question. [applause] >> once you got out of jail did you go back to speak with your cell mates?

>> actually, i believe he passed away. it was hard for me it find like him and where he went because when are in prison you are not known by a name. you just have numbers on an i.d. so you don't know people's government names and stuff like that. so i was reaching around with letters and trying to contact him and i believe one of my letters did make it to him. he was a person who didn't care about being known or anything like that. he just wanted to say his piece and quite honestly most of the time i was with him he was a grumpy old man. so i was not able to have as great a relationship with him as i wanted to. specifically, when i got out there was just so much that i

had to deal with getting out and starting a new life, i can give you one example. i go down to get my i.d. and you all have you know how the lines are. they are ridiculous. i go to get the i.d. and i'm in line about an hour and get up there and they are like you can get your i.d. you just need a birth certificate or social security card. they are like it is over here. i stand in another line. you can get the birth certificate you just need the i.d. it was stuff like that that i was dealing in trying to integrate in society and took my focus off of thanking him the right way and one thing is for sure i will make sure his memory lives on because i won't stop telling that story. thank you for your question. [applause] >> do you finds that immigrants, foreign born people are particularly vulnerable because

they are in a strange place and don't know the laws and don't have the money? >> i can tell you from that perspectives. from being in there and being out as an attorney. they are vulnerable to not only just access to justice but also victims of crime. who are they going to report to? there are a lot of studies on immigrants who come to this country just to make a living and send back to their family. they are tan advantage of -- taken advantage of slave wages and in prison what i found was there were people who barely spoke english and they were sentenced to serve time in prison and instead of being released they were released to a county jail awaiting extradition back to their country. so, that was another head scratcher. as an attorney i'm asking myself

and not only as an attorney but a contributing member of society who pays taxes why are we spending money to lock people up then send them out of the country. i saw a lot of that. it was very disheartening because when you think of people and the way we depict people that have handcuffs on them when you see people arrested you don't ask i wonder what he was accused of or i wonder if he has a good attorney. you say i wonder what he did. or she did. right? i found that many of these people in prison were brothers and fathers and i met a lot of people who were getting deported. like when their sentences were over they would tell me often you think it is violent here you

don't know violence in venezuela or here and they would come here and the circumstances would have it that they would end up in prison and deported to the same country they would flee and many would do it over and over again. that is a long topic but thank you for your question. >> i'm daryl and i go to john f. kennedy high school. where did you get the currently and drive to keep going and not go back and did you ever receive an apology from any of the defense attorneys or anybody who wrongly accused you of your crime? >> great question but they don't apologize in court. i spoke to my attorney. and look, he failed it investigate my case. i'm accused of a rape felling somebody up in stairs and there much witnesses who can place me

somewhere else and prove it was a false accusation. he didn't investigate and he didn't call witnesses. i was so upset for so long but when i got a chance to hear from him i heard that he too is human and he made a mistake and he dropped the ball. and it happens. the practice of law is just that, it is the practice. some lawyers shouldn't be last. some lawyers try their hardest and make a mistake. i want to say you are easter sunday sharp over there. [laughter] [applause] >> you really are. to answer specifically the question about what encouraged me, if i can get you to see the wrinkles and creases of anguish on my mother's forehead in that

visiting room being told that that is it, you can't hug the son you gave birth to because the visit is over. those phone calls. the whole everything, right? i'm not the only one there. she is out but she is in prison in spirit. all of these ridiculous shows about what happens in prison and she is thinking this is happening to her son in prison, i owed her and i was going to repay her. your encouragement may be different. you may find something else that encourages you. may be what you hear from me will encourage you to go and be not just great but extraordinary, right? you can do it. you definitely can. when you get up there, i may have my aarp card and be retired. look out for me.

throw me a bone. >> thank you for your presence and teaching us some lessons. i had one question about your cellmate. but i have another one and now only have one question. your perception, having been in jail, you made some comments about drug possession. do you think if we treated all of drug possession charges, not necessarily trafficking charges, as diseases and did not imprison those people, that would save the prisons for people proven to be violent. or violent crimes. would that be an improvement on the system? do you have an opinion on that? when is your book coming out? mr. adams: i am an extreme notetaker. i took notes in prison and here. i am a little bit of a nerd. i read everything. i read a study in norway on how they run their prisons.

the idea of them running their prisons is more like how it should be. you are in prison, no doubt. you cannot get out and leave. but it does not look like prison. it goes to my point i am making. you cannot cage people up like animals, feed them like animals, and then release them and tell them to be human. it does not make sense. it does not work at all. and, you know, being with people who are in prison, a lot of them in prison, they are there because they have different vices, different types of abuses and things like that. many of them are substance abusers. many of them are selling drugs to feed their own habit. many of them are robbing and killing to feed their habit. we are punishing people.

we have this extreme glutton for punishment in society, right? we punish them all the way until they die. you cannot do this. you cannot get that. people are going to prison, and they are not being treated, right? they are not being treated at all. there are people that come, and right before your eyes, they are suffering from withdrawals of heroin, not being treated at all. when you do not treat people, and when you release them to the same community they come from, the same things happen. you can get whatever drug you're looking for in prison, ok? whatever it is. many of them do drugs in prison as well. we have to separate people who are there for nonviolent crimes from the people who are there for violent crimes. i will tell you why. if you are raised in a house full of people who yell, you will raise your voice without knowing. if you are in a prison with a bunch of people who are violent,

you will be what as a result? violent. you are the one handing out the violence or receiving the violence. and the entire system needs to be rehauled. but it has to be a want by the that has all the money in our society. or the 1%, right. i am an advocate for changes inside. if you change what is going on inside, you change the numbers of the people inside. if it is -- i think it is around 70% -- just think about this. over half the people in prison have been there before; right? they have been to prison. this place that we call corrections. they have been released, and they came back.

let us use another analogy. imagine this -- 50% of the cars -- i will not name the company, but if a car company produced cars and, on average, 50% of those cars came back after they left the production line, it would stop. something would be done. so why hasn't it been done with the prison system, right? i mean, the answers may be there. is it because of the people who fuel the prison system? is it a black and brown thing? is it a poor thing? it is something. we do know that. thank you for your question. >> my name is amy spence. my fiance has been in prison for 13 years for a crime his best friend committed. they both passed polygraph

tests. his polygraphs passed him based on innocent. his best friend admitted he was guilty and also passed. we have always fought for his innocence, his freedom. there has not been one year where we have not filed something, any kind of appeal or whatever. recently, the innocence project in ohio decided to collaborate with his attorney to file his no trial motion. we have an application of innocence pending with our local integrity unit. they accepted it once last year, sat on it for nine months, and denied it. after this article was written by kyle swenson, they decided to reopen his case. i think it was because of the attention from the article that, you know, brought them to make that decision to reopen or reinvestigate his case. but as family members, you know, how do we create more attention on these cases when all the

evidence is there, clear as day? if you read this, you would say, why is this man still in prison? we started a petition on change.org. we got 1000 signatures, but then it stopped. how did your family keep fighting for you? after so many years. it has been 13 years for us. it seems like -- we got to this point with the innocence project, which is awesome, you know, but we still want to bring more attention to his case and make more people aware of the injustice happening to him and so many others. how do family members keep fighting and create that attention? we have written celebrities and everything, too. mr. adams: thank you for your question. i will make sure i will give you my information before i leave. so we can talk further. to be honest, that is a question my mother or aunt could answer better than i could. i will say this. the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

you have to continue to beat the drum until the attention comes. we cannot forget about the power we hold in our hands with cell phones, with social media. you do not have to wait for someone to write a report. you can become your own author. you can write these blogs, continue to spread them on social media and tag people. tag potus. tag people that continue to beat the drum. he also has to continue to wait for justice. look, the unfortunate thing about prison and being in prison is it really does not go slow. before you know it, one christmas will turn into eight before you know it. it is one of these things. the best thing for me to do when i was in there was believed that, every day, i was going home the next day.

that was one of the things that kept me sane. it was like reverse psychology for myself. i can imagine what you're going through. i know what it was like to speak on the phone with my mother and do the calls and stuff like that. i repeat what i said earlier and say, keep the faith. continue to reach out to as many people as you possibly can. i was sending 50 letters a week on average. you only get 10 stamps, but many of the letters would not change. besides the date. hello it is me again. , i was mailing the same people. it took a long time. i was imprisoned for five years before the innocence project took my case. it took a lot of reaching out. back in 1998, there was no google. google did not come out until 1999. there was no e-mail, cell phones, stuff like that.

if you're going to tweet and facebook, do it with purpose and with a cause. thank you. i will make sure i give you my information. >> this will be a follow-up to that question. each time i have read or heard about a person like yourself being found innocent or being exonerated, it seems that there was an extraordinarily sloppy job done on the police and prosecutors' side of investigating and making any real effort to determine what happened. now, i appreciate the pressure that was brought on assistant prosecutors or district attorneys, depending on where you are from, to achieve a conviction. from your vantage point, do you have any suggestions as to change that could be made on the prosecutors' side and perhaps on the police side to see that matters like yours are, in fact,

properly investigated? mr. adams: thank you for your question. that is a great question. i have been giving this some thought. the relationship between the police and a prosecutor should not be as close as they are. they should not be able to work hand in hand. prosecutors should not be able to become investigators and go back to a prosecutor. you should not be able to go into a room and question a suspect, as we have seen so many times with prosecutors. you should not tell a police officer how to question a suspect. we have created a criminal justice system and a system in itself that picks sides against one another. and i don't care if it is a spitball contest, whatever contest it is, you do not care about anything besides winning. when you do that, justice is robbed. my suggestion would be a

-- we need to have a separate entity between the police and prosecutors, an entity where you do not have to know the name of a person to find out if there is enough evidence of guilt. you do not need to know the color of the person to find out if there is evidence of guilt. you do not need those things. there should be a room with three open-minded people who would get evidence, look at evidence, and decide whether or not it goes to trial. and the prosecutor and the police should not be able to hand jive that evidence into making it fit wherever they want it to fit. it should not be that way. in the end if you get out, if , you are wrongfully convicted, it is a thing called immunity. you cannot even sue the prosecutors and police unless you catch them doing something egregious, meaning dropping the

murder weapon at your house. how do you do that? most of the people being wrongfully convicted, they have been there for years, before technology was out. now science is advancing, with dna an all types of stuff. to get people out. but when you get out, you cannot , even punish the people who did that to you. many of them that were prosecutors they are captains of , the force. it is about winning, not about justice. it is just not. you can see i am passionate about that. that is mind-boggling. thank you all. [applause] mr. adams: thank you, though. >> can you comment on the wildly popular "serial" podcast? sort of a similar situation where the lawyer did not do her job. is that going to help the innocence project? mr. adams: i was in prison with steven avery in wisconsin.

this show is about a case from wisconsin. i did not know him personally. in prison, you bounce around from prison to prison. i was in the same system with steven avery. i do not know enough about the case to venture into guilt or innocence or anything like that, but i know this -- i cannot even go and get my own niece or nephew out of school. i am their uncle. how on earth how can the police get a kid out of school, question them for hours, take them back to school, and later use that evidence to charge him and his uncle with a crime? if we want to preserve the criminal justice system, they should be given a new trial. that is what they should begin, a new trial.

if there is enough evidence and you feel they are guilty, there should be enough evidence to find them guilty fairly without evidence that was manufactured by way of intimidation and taking advantage of people, just taking advantage of people. for you that have seen the show "making of a murder," you know in detail what i'm talking about. some evidence, there was a kid who was basically -- he was questioned for hours and hours with no parent and no lawyer in this police department, being questioned by people who question people for a living and have been doing it forever. and they used this evidence to convict him at trial. it's heartbreaking. this kid is in prison right now. i am glad they exposed this through the show. also, there is another point i want to make about the show. that i think it missed. steven avery was wrongfully convicted. he was released after 20 years. dna proved he did not commit

this rape and murder or something like that. i think it was a rape. so he was released from prison. the crime he is in jail for now happened a year after his release. he is released from prison with nothing and he is staying on an auto body salvage yard, basically a junkyard, in a trailer, surrounded by nothing but vacant, torn-down cars. isolated. reminiscent of what? a prison. you are also isolated in the prison. he was not given mental health care. no mental health evaluation. no screening, no nothing. just, our bad. you did not commit the crime. he is released into these conditions of god knows what, a trailer yard, living by himself. now he is in prison for murder. that should be a bigger topic in itself.

i do not know the evidence in the case, but i know he was released. without anyone talking to him. after 20 years of anything, anything, whether it is marriage or whatever it is, you might need to talk to someone from time to time. [laughter] he is released from prison, and it is like nothing. that case is just mind-boggling. thank you for your question. [applause] mr. adams: thank you again for having me out, man. >> here is a look at our primetime schedule. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, a preview of some of the major congressional issues. the house and senate will debate when they return from summer recess. book tv.2, it is and on c-span3, american history tv with events and programs on world war i.

weekend, bookday tv brings you three days of nonfiction books and authors. here are some featured programs. saturday night at 10:00, afterwards, new america foundation's rosa parks looks at the changes in the u.s. military's approach to fighting wars as well as its role in ongoing conflict. miss brooks is interviewed by kathleen hicks, former deputy undersecretary of defense for policy. congress is not going to wake up one morning and say -- let us triple the budget. but if that is not going to happen, if the military is going to continue to be asked to take on this wide range of tasks, then let us make sure the military is good at them. live sunday, in depth and

with mr. prager. still the best hope. and the 10 commandments. join in the conversation with your phone calls and tweets from noon until 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. and kate andersen brower will discuss the 10 first ladies. the grace and power of america's modern first lady. she speaks at policy and prose bookstore here in washington, d.c. and monday, or a roach on the effective as an safety of the u.s. military, elaine, on why the public has lost faith in their leaders, and gene edward smith. and senator trent lott and jon presidentialabout politics.

go to book tv.org for the complete weekend schedule. campaign 2016, c-span continues on the road to the white house. >> i will be a president for democrats, republicans, and independence. >> we will win or education. we will win. ahead, live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span. the c-span radio apple, and c-span.org. the first26 is presidential debate. live, from hofstra university. on tuesday, october 4, vice presidential candidate governor mike pence and senator tim kaine debate at longwood university. 9, on sunday, october washington university hosts the second presidential debate leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump taking place at the university of nevada, las vegas.

live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span. listen live for free on the c-span radio apple or watch live anytime on-demand at c-span.org. earlier today, vice president joe biden was campaigning for hillary clinton in warren, ohio. it was the first of two stops he made in support of mrs. clinton in the buckeye state. this is 50 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the governor and vice president joe biden. [applause]

let us hear it for the vice president. [applause] >> it is wonderful to welcome the vice president back to biden country. the mahoney valley. it is really great to have the vice president with us. a man who i believe understands the heart and soul of the mahoney valley. of ohio. and of america.

better than anyone else i know, this man knows us. he knows ohio. and he knows america. and we are so pleased and proud to have him here. he is here to support hillary clinton or president. and he is here to support me for united states senate. [applause] you know, i am running for this senate seat because i am from working people. that is who i came from. that is who i care about. and that is who i will fight for in the senate. i am running against the guy named rob portman. using theizes me for rainy day fund and my brothers and sisters, we remember it was not only bringing, it was boring. and we were dealing -- it was

pouring. we were dealing with an economy not of our own making, but as a result of wall street but as a result -- and as a result from the bush administration. i protected education. i protected local governments. and i protected firefighters and police officers. know, i want to ask you a question. what kind of twisted logic would cause rob portman to be so ashamed of donald trump that he would not even stand on a platform with him but yet he believes that he should be the president of the united states of america? you know what that says to me? is putting hisn party above his country. this man donald trump is unfit

to be the president. and i believe rob portman understands that. but you know, there are a lot of differences between senator portman and myself. let us just take the auto rescue. we are in the mahoney valley. cruisein the home of the -- are we not? and when the auto industry was on its knees, the vice president and our president took strong actions and they saved this vital industry and what was rob portman saying at the time? he said it was a lousy deal for ohio. can you imagine? a senator from ohio causing the -- calling the saving of the auto industry a lousy deal. now, let me tell you what happened after the industry was saved. if you months after the industry was saved, i had the privilege of riding in the first chevy

cruz that came off the assembly line. [applause] it was a beautiful red one. and my wife went out and bought one just like it. so, what about college affordability? a lot of young people here today. rob portman voted to cut millions of dollars out of pell grants and he has opposed allowing our students with great debt, mr. vice president, he has opposed allowing them to refinance their debt at a lower interest rate. what about equal pay for equal work? how many women do we have in this crowd? [applause] voted five times against a equity for women. he is opposed to roe v wade. he believes that an employer should tell a woman whether or not her insurance should provide

her with contraceptive coverage. that is the record with women. what about retirement security? oh, we love social security and medicare, don't we? we really do. let me tell you, rob portman strived to privatize social turnity and he voted to toward medicare into a voucher program. and then there is the supreme court. you know, the president's constitutional responsibility, when there is a vacancy on the supreme court, to put forth a qualified nominee and the president has done that. and then the constitutional responsibility of senators is to grant that nominee hearings and a vote. and rob portman has taken his leadership from mitch mcconnell and they have refused to grant judge garland even a hearing. do your job, rob.

the senate has a responsibility. iselieve rob portman neglecting his constitutional responsibility. and he ought to be a ashamed of himself and nearly every major newspaper in ohio has said the same thing. [applause] now, i am finished talking about myself. i want to talk about this wonderful man sitting behind me. biden, joe biden represents the heart and the soul of america. we love you joe, we do. and we especially love you here in the mahoney valley. and we love you because of your

ofues, we love you because what you have done with your life. we love you because you understand what america is feeling. and too many americans are feeling left out and left behind. messagebiden has the that america needs to hear. and it is my privilege to introduce to you my friend, our friend, the vice president of the united states, joe biden. [applause] biden: thank you very much. it is good to be back in the valley. now, i and serious. i come from the lackawanna valley in northeastern pennsylvania. and made of the same stuff, man. if you knew where i came from, you would think you were home.

i mean it. look folks, i have campaigned over the years for a lot of people. there is no one that i admired more than ted strickland. ted and i have gone -- no, i really mean this. we have gone up and down and across the state in two campaigns right i was here last campaign, 23 days. he probably wanted me to get out. [laughter] but it matters because the people i trust most in life and in politics are the people, who the ideas that they care about guts in their got\/ -- first, and then it goes to their heart and then it is articulated through their head. those are the ones i trust. the people who arrive at a conclusion as an intellectual exercise -- they are good people

but when things get really tough, they are the people who sometimes crack. but the guys and women who feel gut, they are the people that i trust. and timmy, you are in the same category, buddy. i know about irish and italians. i am irish and i married an italian. is sicilian besides. i don't screw around. i must tell you that. i listen to her. but all kidding aside, tim, you are a standup guy. tim touched on something i will speak briefly on today. my biggest problem with donald trump is not his cockamamie policies, it is the way he treats people. i mean it sincerely. think about growing up.

in your house. at your kitchen table. if you ever talked about people like he does, i am not joking. i really genuinely mean this. , youu ever sat there and know, talked about how cool it was that john down the street got fired. you are fired. if phrase he has made famous. you are fired. -- you may have come from a household where you were fired, and the plant closed down, and they are staring at the ceiling wondering how in god's name i'm going to make it. -- and he means it, american workers make too much money.

just think about this. i am being deadly earnest. this is not the campaign speech, man. this is about the character of the person we are talking about electing as president of the united states. know, doug franklin, the mayor is here. thanks for the passport to get into the town. [laughter] but you guys get it. you guys did it. glenn couldt and not be here but i quite frankly like the fact that sherry and glenn johnson are here. i like vice president's better than presidents anyway. [laughter] but all kidding aside, back in 2008 and 2012, i came here to ask for your vote. and i guess i was presumptive

enough to ask for your trust. i stood here and ask you -- i promise that if you trust us -- please give us your vote. moreave us your vote but importantly, you invested your trust in as. i came back to say first and foremost, thank you. i mean this sincerely. i know i would not be standing president,as vice and this is not hyperbole, i would not be standing here today without you all. without the american labor movement. i would never as a 29-year-old kid be elected in the corporate state of delaware were it not knowing that i had no chance, the uaw stood up. they represented 10% of the

entire workforce in my entire state. there is no uaw left in delaware anymore. they stood up. they took a chance on a kid. they took a chance on someone who said -- i promise you. i get it. say, joe, youd to are labor from your belt buckle to your shoe soul for a simple i am a student of history. that raised in a family was straightforward and honest. the fact of the matter is, american labor, not figuratively but literally, and you kids are not being taught this, these days, literally built the middle class in america. there would be no middle class in america without organized labor. barack and i would not have been

voted without you. i hope you know that i've tried to repay your trust. when barack and i were sworn in january 20, the auto industry was on its back. there were literally serious discussions of letting the industry collapse. guys andright-wing chamber of commerce guys, but remember what they were saying about you all? they were saying that american workers were not productive. that you all were lazy. try to remember what this really was. that you could not compete with the japanese. you could not compete with the germans. we were not as smart. we were not as dedicated. we had become lazy. and it was not worth it. asked -- i know i get blamed but i am happy now that i got blamed for being the as ob at the family picnic --

for being the sob at the family that nick for bailing out the auto industry. i was absolutely convinced along with others because of who i knew and how i grew up. we knew the automobile industry was not just an important economic element of the american economy, it was the symbol of who we are. what are we known best for in the world? the american automobile industry. we built it for the world. not just for the united states. how central tood the well-being of our economy the automobile industry was. remember back then what our friends were saying on the other team. i really mean it because nothing has changed. that is why i bothered to remind

you about this. the thing i want you to remember brain kicked in and so did the president by the wall street journal and by the republicans and by your opponent. and by the last administration. -- you weren't capable. you weren't capable. of building the best product in the world. you weren't productive. you were over page. remember that article -- remember that argument? how many times did we hear for eight years about how do were overpaid. how many times did we hear the last time around, we will let them go bankrupt. let detroit go bankrupt. ohio, ted pointed

out, his opponent said this is a lousy deal for ohio. we have gone down to just about 6 million vehicles a year. go back and look, i wife is a college professor -- google it. check it out. what was the mainstream, center-right press saying? we could never build more than 6 billion cars in america. mainly because you were not competent. your desire to work hard. you had gotten fat and happy. that was the whole story. trus still trumps story -- mp's story. and why bother to invest. do you know who invested most in the recovery of the industry? the uaw. you all contributed the most.

you gave the most at the office. as they say. to resurrect this industry. you took a hit to get it back on its feet when management had screwed up the whole process. you are not designing the cars. management designs them. my dad was in the auto industry give me -- just product. i can sell it if you give me product. -- the bottoms line is these same guys they have not changed. about the auto industry, it is about the american worker still. they do not know you. know you then, they don't know you now. they didn't know where i came from. folks, we all come from the same neighborhood.

the folks in here. whether it is scranton, toledo, pittsburgh -- and this other guy, he is simply not a bad guy but he doesn't understand this anymore than you understand what it is like to live in a 30,000 square foot and house 80 floors up in new york. you don't understand that. i don't. he doesn't have any idea what it to sit at my dad's kitchen table and hear my mom say -- honey, we need new tires on the car. and hear him say -- honey, you have to get 10,000 more miles. we just don't have it right now. he doesn't understand the conversation that still goes on in the valley. honey, who is going to tell mary -- she cannot go back to college this year. we just -- we just -- i don't

know how to tell her. what do we say to her? folks, you know, what you get, it you get it, with the vast majority of americans get -- given american and even chance. just give them a chance. my dad used to say, i don't expect the government to solve my problem, i just one of them to understand my problem. just give me a chance. the neighborhood where we came your character is etched. where your values are set. where george you of the world and your place in the world is formed. like you guys. -- i came from a

neighborhood where most people did not go to college. our parents aspired us to go to college. byt we learned our values watching our mothers and fathers. i learned by watching my grandpa. listening to conversations at the kitchen table. my dad had to leave scranton after world war ii in the mid-1950's to find work. he was a proud man. but yet he had to walk up the stairs in our house and say honey, i and sorry, you cannot go back to st. paul's. we will have to move in with grandpa. because dad -- we cannot keep the house. i have to go find a job. it is going to be ok. he believed it would be ok. i am going to move down with uncle frank into wilmington, there are jobs there.

i will be back in a year, i will be back every weekend, but i will be back in a year and we will bring everybody down. looking back on it as a young adult, i think that must have been hard for him to tell me and my brothers. but it must have been even harder to walk into my grandpa's pantry and say, ambrose, the father of the four men, swallow your pride and say, can you take care of jean and the kids for and i promise i will pay you back. from that moment on, even though i was in fourth grade when we moved, i spent a lot of time going back home to scranton. my dad would say -- and a first i did not understand -- he would repeat all the time what you all feel in your bones. a job is a lot -- is about a lot more than a paycheck. it is about your dignity. it is about respect.

it is about your place in a community. it is about who you are. my grandfather finnegan, joey remember, nobody is better than you. you can do anything anybody else can do. [applause] you have heard that in your family. and our parents meant it. we learned about resilience and we learned that success is not about whether you get knocked down, it is about how quickly you get up. that is who we are. we get up. we do not break. we do not bend. we get up. that was my neighborhood and that is your neighborhood. that is who the hell we are. and look what you did. you got back up and you are now selling 17 million cars a year. [applause] made in america. the most ever.

you are making the best damn cars in the world again. you are the most productive workers. that is not a joe biden prolabor, that is a simple, natural fact. american workers are three times more productive by every study as asian workers are. [applause] i am so sick and tired. i know i am not supposed to get angry but i am so sick and tired of hearing people like trump and the chamber of commerce talking about, we get paid too much. give me a break. give me a break. this is a guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth that he is choking on because now his foot is in his mouth along with the spoon. [laughter] [applause] the message to all of you kids, do not make any excuse for where you are from or who you are.

and do not make any excuse or insistence that we get paid a fair wage. that is why i like this guy behind me. and by the way, i know some of you are mad at hillary any look at her, let me tell you something man, she gets it, and she never yields. she does not break. she stands up. you know what i like about them both the most, they know how to spell the word union -- u-n-i-o-n. they know why we are who we are and they know who built the middle class. hillary clinton was the co-author -- cosponsor of the card check legislation.

this stuff about the middle class is not just from joe biden and hillary and ted, it is a fact. everybody is beginning to figure out all of these major think tanks are now beginning to figure it out. there is an outfit -- an economic research institute called economic policy institute. they put out a 57 page report that wonks like me end up reading. the headline says "union decline lowers wages for non-union workers." remember how the chamber of commerce always go out to the nonunion workers and day, the reason why you are making -- not making more is because of those union guys? they blame us. the only reason they had benefits is because of unions even though they are not unions. this report, 57 pages, i

commend it to the press. here is the conclusion. it says "if organized labor was as strong today as it was in 1979, the whole country would be doing better." it says nonunion workers would make on average $2700 a year more on average if unions were as strong as they were. [applause] ladies and gentlemen. we should be growing the labor movement. trump and the chamber of commerce in the last 12 years have declared war on labor's house.

ted bricklin knows it, hillary knows it, that is why she led the car check fight and that is why ted supported it. ted has never turned his back. tell your friends who are angry and they say a pox on both your houses, ask them a question. i mean sincerely. try it. no matter what their policy. do you think there is any possibility that donald trump would do anything other than continue to try to break a labor movement? all kidding aside. i am so old i served with a guy named barry goldwater and he made famous the praise. he said in your heart you know i am right. ask people in their heart, look them in the eye. do you actually think donald trump cares about raising the average salary of average workers? there used to be a basic bargain, democrats and republicans believed in the bargain. it existed since 1934. with republicans as well.

here's what the bargain was. if you contribute to the well-being and profitability of the enterprise you work with, you get to share the benefits. big study done of the fortune 500 companies that have been fortune 500 for the last 10 years from 2003 until 2012. they made $2,700,000,000,000. do you know what they did with the profit? they spent 54% of it buying back their stock so they can raise the value of the stock they get paid with and they gave 37% to their investors, leaving 9% for every other thing including expansion, workers wages, benefits, new plants, equipment. that generated outfits like the imf, international monetary

fund, standard and poor's. no democratic think tank. -- no democratic think tank with say -- the greatest threat to america is the concentration of wealth in just a few hands. that is what this guy is all about. by the way, republicans did not used to be that way. those of you in the automobile business remember the phrase, this ain't your father's automobile. this ain't your father's republican party. this is a different deal. ted and hillary get it. guy -- i do not mean to be degrading, but it was not much more than a chicken coop. i mean, really, talk about resilience. i did not know it was literal, but man, i tell you what. but he gets it. , he never turns his back on you. not one, single, solitary, moment.

by the way you know what is , amazing? when you are going to the rainy day fund and we were trying to help bail you out with the recovery act which i was doing. >> thank you. vice president biden: you know the budget that caused this to happen? he is not a bad guy but portman wrote the budget. he headed up the budget. he was the guy that wrote the budget. not a joke. he is not a bad guy, but he wrote the budget. he was in charge of the bush budget. as congressman, he voted for the ryan budget. the ryan budget makes sure that you privatize -- it did not pass the whole congress, thank god, but as you privatize social security you give a voucher for medicare, meaning an absolute amount and if you go over that you are dead, figuratively and

literally, cuts $6 billion in education, the quality of high school and grade school, cuts aid to education. they voted for it six times. again not a bad guy, but he has , no notion of what is going to benefit labor-nonlabor and the middle class in america. and unlike his opponent, ted did not think the auto rescue was a bad deal. when i was here the first time you are laying off 1700 people are and they were threatening to move everything to mexico. that was the deal. today you have 4500 folks punching a card and building one of the hottest selling cars. and most importantly, you are able to allow your families to

have a basic, decent living. it is still a struggle. the thing i criticize my party, while we are worrying about getting everyone off of their knees, others are making -- it is hard. it is really hard. hillary gets this. that is where she has been fighting her whole life, for families. from card check to making sure -- everybody says supreme court -- we're only talking about issues that relate to choice and the rest. guess what happened? there is a case in the supreme court and only because there is a 4-4 tie to take away the collective right to bargain. did you ever think we would get to the point where we had a court where with one more vote change, your right to collect to bargaining is fundamentally changed. her dad was born in my hometown

of scranton and her grandfather worked at scranton lace. that was hard work. essentially a central loom. this is a guy who busted his rear end. hillary understands the struggle and she understands that middle class is not a number. it is about being able to send your kids to a park and know they will come home safe. it is about sending your kid to a high school and if they can do well and be able to go to college if they want to. it is about being able to home -- own your home. being able to take one of your geriatric parents after one dies and hope your kids never have to take care of you. that is middle-class. she understands. that is what these guys do not get. i am going to stop. this is what these guys do not get.

i mean this sincerely now. you look at these beautiful and handsome young kids and you see all the talent. and so we say, if the parent cannot figure out how to get to the college, it is a loss for the kids. it is. you know what is more profound they do not get? the most devastating thing that happened to a parent. what is the one thing that is the most devastating for a parent? to look at their kid who is in war has anin need opportunity and there is not a damn thing you can do to help. i can remember, i was a pretty good athlete in high school. i remember after my senior year of my senior prom having to -- having a dad in automobile business was great.

it means i got a new car for the prom and i remember driving my 1951 candy apple red plymouth convertible with towels for seat covers after a baseball game from claymont, delaware, the old steel town i went to school in down to newark, delaware where he managed the dealership. i had a routine, i would pull my car into one spot. i had my uniform on and i ran into the showroom and i saw mary, i said, where is dad? she said he is in the repair shop. my dad was a gentleman, extremely well-dressed and he was pacing back and for then he looked at me and said joey, i am so sorry. i thought, god almighty this is before cell phones. i thought something had happened to my mother or my brother or my

sister. he said joey, i went to the bank today. the bank had financed the loans for this dealership. i went to see charlie dolcher and joey, they will not lend me the money to send you to college. i am so ashamed. i am so ashamed. first thing i did when i got to the united states senate was increase college loan access. [applause] i am going to end here. that is the deal folks. that is who we are. this is about more than just whether a kid gets an education. this is about more than whether you can afford to bring mom home. it is about more. it is about who we are as a people. it is about the stuff we are made of.

it is about our values. and for all the criticism for hillary, she gets it in her gut. she gets it. and folks, that made us the most unique country in the world. that sense. that sense. that is more than just about that one person and it is all about that one person. i am not going to take your time because you have been standing too long. i just got back, i am supposedly an expert on foreign policy if you read the national press. where i come from experts are headed out of town with a briefcase. do you know what i had to do? i had to change my schedule to get in the plane to fly to latvia, estonia, lithuania.

do you know why? to meet with the presidents. i met at a conference with their presidents to reassure them that donald trump did not represent america. do you know what donald trump said? donald trump said he is not sure he would honor our nato commitment. to protect them if russia invaded them. they are scared to death with good reason that russia will cross the border and annex them like they did crimea. and what does donald trump say? these are members of nato. he says we are to check whether they paid all their dues. he is causing, for the first time, bush or clinton or obama, for the first time he is causing nations to wonder whether or not we will keep our word. the idea that i ever thought i would get on a plane in my career to basically make an

emergency flight to hold the hand of three presidents and say he does not represent republicans or democrats on this. do not worry. this is a guy who admires putin. this is a guy who does not know that russian troops have already come across the border and annexed crimea. this is a guy who guarantees that putin is not going to invade a country he has already invaded i guess because his campaign manager is being paid millions of dollars by the dictator who ran the place beforehand. [applause] i do not believe the guy is a bad guy, i just believe he is thoroughly, totally, completely uninformed.

he has no idea what the hell he is talking about and guess what? that is ok sometimes. that is ok sometimes. but i have a military aimed at me carrying a briefcase. that briefcase has the nuclear codes in it and got for bid if something happened to the president and a decision had to be made, i open up and the nuclear codes are there, just imagine giving this guy access. i really mean it. imagine giving this guy access to the nuclear codes. a guy who says how he would consider using nuclear weapons. a guy who talks about how maybe other countries should become nuclear -- my god. it is one thing not to know what the hell car check is. and i am sure he has no idea what it is.

it is another thing to wonder whether or not this guy thinks that, when asked by stephanopoulos, would you be prepared to make a deal with putin? i am paraphrasing -- about him having part of ukraine? "i would consider that." oh, good. maybe the pact between the germans and stalin could be reinstated here, let us divide up. you guys, the trump world is already making us less safe. my son, who was a wonderful guy and he volunteered as a prosecutor to go into the middle -- he spent a year in iraq as a major united states army and came back highly decorated with three decorations including the bronze star. let me tell you what is going on in iraq right now. the shia and the -- in tehran

are trying to influence what is happening in iraq. and there is urban legend saying that the united states supports isis. supports isis. when he stands up there and says, irresponsibly, that everybody here knows is ridiculous, that barack obama invented isis. do you know what happened the next day? the guy who runs a terrorist organization put out on all of their networks that the nominee of one of the two largest parties in america may very well be president soon has admitted that we started isis and that he has proof of this. do you know what that means? we are trying now to make sure that these, what they call the shia pmf do not attack american forces or the american embassy in iraq.

if people believe we are supporting isis, what do you think happens to our kids in these countries? the man is totally irresponsible. but folks, i could have just said my name is joe biden and i am for hillary clinton and ted strickland and donald trump is dangerous and that probably would have sufficed.

thank you very much. [applause] ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> some of c-span's coverage with vice president joe biden on the trail on behalf of hillary clinton. i want to take a look at some of the other events taking place on the campaign trail with hillary clinton and donald trump. a look at a tweet that shows some of the fundraising numbers for hillary clinton, and impressive month as they report $143 million that clinton raked in in the campaign's best

fundraising month. you can read more at thehill.com. some of those contributions coming from the time she has spent at fundraisers on the east and west coast. $62 million went to the clinton campaign. $81 million, going to the democratic party. meanwhile, a facebook video that donald trump put out, he met with the president of mexico yesterday in what was a surprise visit, and in a video he released, he thanked the mexican president for his visit to mexico. here is a look at some of what donald trump has posted on his facebook. >> mr. trump, how are you? welcome.

> that was donald trump returning from his visit yesterday with the president of mexico, some mixed signals as both the president of mexico and donald trump are in a back-and-forth on twitter. hill" reporting that the mexican president said he will never pay for the wall, and a tweet from donald trump saying next go will pay for the wall. a look at the article from

hill," saying mexico will not pay for the wall. a back-and-forth between these two as donald trump is on the campaign trail. meanwhile, hillary clinton picking up on some of what donald trump has been saying tweetimmigration and her piggybacking on some of this with a quote from donald trump saying, they have to go, meaning some of the immigrants who have arrived in the united states illegally. here is what her recent campaign ad has to say about that. ♪ >> there certainly could be a softening. i've had people say it's a hardening. we are going to have a deportation force. we have at least 11 million people in this country that came

in illegally. they will go out. they have to go. they have to go. they are going to be deported. we either have a country, or we don't. i will build a great, great wall. ada look at just some of the that hillary clinton has put out after the recent visit donald trump made to mexico and the back-and-forth that has been happening between him and the president of mexico, and after some of the comments and speeches donald trump has made regarding his stance on immigration, a number of people saying there is a softening, and some of his words indicating that that is perhaps not the case. donald trump spoke earlier today and ofamerican legion, course, we brought you c-span coverage of his speech. we are going to take a look at that now. this is from earlier today in cincinnati.

♪ [applause] mr. trump: thank you very much. what a great honor and privilege to speak to you today. the american legion is very, very special, so thank you very much. i want to thank commander dale barnett, your vice commanders, and your constitutional officers. you have all done such an incredible job. the fact is you are incredible people. [applause] mr. trump: the men and women of the american legion represent

the best -- absolute best of america. strength, courage, selfless devotion. your organization and its members have done so much to defend our country, our flag, and to advance the cause of americanism, not globalism. remember, america first, america first. [applause] mr. trump: you are one group i don't have to tell you to remember it also. you know it. we are in your debt, very deeply. i will never let you down. [applause] mr. trump: together, we are going to work on so many shared goals, but i want to begin by discussing one goal that i know -- that i know is so important to you -- promoting american pride and patriotism in america's schools. [applause] mr. trump: very important. [applause]

mr. trump: in a trump administration, i plan to work directly with the american legion to uphold our common values and to help ensure they are taught to america's children. [applause] mr. trump: we want our kids to learn the incredible achievement of america's history, its institutions, and its heroes, many of whom are with us today, i can tell you. including, by the way, two special people -- mayor rudolph giuliani, and senator jeff sessions. they are right here. [applause] mr. trump: we will stop apologizing for america, and we will start celebrating america. [applause] mr. trump: we will be united by

our common culture, values, and principles, becoming one american nation -- one country, under one constitution, saluting one american flag, and always saluting it. [applause] mr. trump: the flag all of you helped to protect and preserve -- that flag deserves respect, and i will work with the american legion to help to strengthen respect for our flag. you see what is happening. it is very, very sad. [applause] mr. trump: and, by the way, we want young americans to recite the pledge of allegiance. [applause] mr. trump: in addition to teaching respect for the flag, we also have to make sure we give our military the tools they need to defend that flag and to deter violence and aggression from our foreign adversaries, of

which there are many. [applause] mr. trump: we will rebuild our depleted military and pursue a state-of-the-art missile defense. we will do it based on those three very famous words -- peace through strength. [applause] mr. trump: we will make sure our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have the best equipment, training, schools, anywhere in the world. no one will be able to compete with us and we will ensure they have the best medical care in the world in the service, and when they return home as civilians. [applause]

mr. trump: that will require a total reform of the veterans administration. it is in very short -- very sad shape.

i deal with veterans all of the time. we have tremendous veterans support, and the stories i hear are so sad. we are not going to have that anymore. [applause] mr. trump: i have laid out a 10-step v.a. reform plan that you can review on my website. here are the basics. i will appoint a secretary of veterans affairs whose personal mission will be to clean up the v.a. the secretary's soul bend will be to serve our veterans -- not bureaucrat, not politicians, but our great veterans. [applause] mr. trump: i am going to use every lawful authority to remove and discipline anyone who fails our veterans or breaches the public trust -- which is what it is, it is a public trust -- i will appoint a commission to investigate all the wrongdoing

at the v.a., and there is plenty, and then present those findings to congress as the basis for reforming the entire system. we are going to get you fantastic service. it is going to happen. believe me. [applause] mr. trump: we will ensure every veteran in america gets timely access to top, quality care, including the best care in the world for our female veterans. [applause] mr. trump: the veterans health system will remain a public system because it is, after all, a public trust, but never again will we allow any veteran to suffer or die waiting for care. that means veterans will have the right to go to a v.a. facility, or have the right to see a private doctor or clinic of their choice -- whatever is

the best, fastest for veterans. people are not going to die waiting on line to see a doctor. it is not going to happen. [applause] mr. trump: the veteran will be in total control. should i have the honor of serving as president, we are also going to start facing the world with confidence again. we are going to uphold the laws of the nation and defend our sovereignty, and security, and we are going to defend our border. [applause] mr. trump: i just came back from a wonderful meeting with the president of mexico where i expressed my deep respect for the people of his country, and for the tremendous contributions of mexican americans in our country, and they have made tremendous contributions. many are in our armed services. you know how good they are. i want to again thank him for his gracious hospitality, and express my belief that we can work together to accomplish great things for both countries -- that is mexico and the united states.

[applause] mr. trump: we agreed in the meeting on the need to stop the illegal flow of guns, drugs, cash, and people across the border, and to take out the cartels -- have to get rid of those cartels, and we have to do it quickly. our country is being poisoned. our country is being poisoned. [applause] mr. trump: we are also talking about and talked about the importance of working to keep jobs and wealth in our hemisphere. a more prosperous mexico means fewer illegal border crossings and a better market for products made in the united states.

when i am president, i am going to look at every trade deal we have across the world and see what steps must taken to protect american jobs and create american jobs and create new opportunities for the american worker. the american worker has been forgotten, and we are not going to let that happen. [applause] mr. trump: we will fight for every last american jobs, and we will have friendships with other countries, but they will not take advantage of us any longer. that i can tell you. [applause] mr. trump: we are going to show ourselves and the world, again, what a strong and growing american economy can look like.

we are going to give major tax relief to every worker and small business in this country. bring thousands of new countries and millions of new jobs back to our shores, and unleash an american energy revolution, which we have to do. we will also be appointing justices of the united states supreme court who you will be very proud -- you will be extremely proud when we name them. you have already seen some of the people and the kind of people that we want. justice scalia passed away recently. serves as an absolute perfect focal point. he is the kind of person we want on the united states supreme court. [applause] mr. trump: i will nominate men and women to the court who need the high standard of justice scalia, and judges who have the wisdom and integrity to follow the law, and not just make it up

any way they want to make it up. [applause] mr. trump: above all, these next four years i will be uncompromising in the defense of the united states and our friends, and our good allies. we are going to end the era of nationbuilding, and create a foreign policy joined by our partners in the middle east to -- that is focused on destroying isis and radical islamic terrorism. [applause] mr. trump: we will extend the hand of friendship to any nation that will work with us in good faith on this vital mission, and we want this mission to be a cop -- accomplished quickly. at the same time, we will change our immigration screening procedures to help keep terrorists and extremists out of our country. [applause]

mr. trump: we have enough problems. our country has enough problems. we do not need that one. that includes stopping the influx of syrian refugees. [applause] mr. trump: incredibly, my opponent, hillary clinton, wants a 550% increase in refugees from that region. hard to believe. i, on the other hand, want to build a safe zone overseas, and use the money saved to build and -- to invest in america. we do not want to let anyone in our country who doesn't support our values, and is not capable of loving our people. [applause] mr. trump: it is time to create a new american future for you,

your children, and all american children yet to come. in this future we will have an honest government that includes an honest state department, not pay for play. [applause] mr. trump: she probably didn't mention that to you yesterday. [laughter] mr. trump: government access and favors will no longer be for sale, and important e-mail records will no longer be deleted and digitally altered, which is something they just found out two days ago. bleached, bleached -- an expensive process, why? why? 33,000 e-mails bleached through a very expensive process.

you ask yourself what is going on. we will have an efficient federal process. no more waste. no more throwing away tax dollars. once more, we will have a government of, by, and for the people. it will be -- [applause] mr. trump: it will be an inclusive society, one that offers hope and opportunity to every part of this country, including our inner cities. we will ensure that every child in this land, including african-american and hispanic children are put on the american ladder of success, meaning a great education and a great job, which they are not getting now. [applause]

mr. trump: we will follow the noble example of our military men and women working selflessly across all different races and incomes and backwards to achieve -- and backgrounds to achieve unity and accomplish amazing things. you are amazing people. just in case you did not know that, ok? amazing people. ladies and gentlemen of the american legion, i ask today for the honor of your vote. working in unison, we can deliver the real american change our country so desperately needs. we will make -- we will make america strong again. we will make america proud again. we will make america safe again. we will make america great again. thank you very much, and god bless you.

thank you. thank you. thank you very much. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.