we're also joined by the honorable adam laxait. former lieutenant in the u.s. navy. he served as judge advocate general and volunteered to serve in a combat zone in iraq, operating base camp victory where his team was in charge of keeping more than 20,000 detainees during the surge. he was awarded the iraq campaign medal and unit was awarded the joint mare toir yous unit award. he advised john bolton at the state department. he serves on the board of trustees for catholic charities of southern nevada and co-founded the st. thomas moore society of nevada. received his law degree from georgetown. let's welcome our speakers and we'll begin. [ applause ] now, if i may begin with you judge pryor since you served a little while ago, what was it like serving as attorney general then? >> it was a different world. i became the attorney general of alabama in january of 1997. jeff sessions my former boss had just been elected to the united states senate and the governor appointed me to finish his term. and the first issue really on my plate was whether the state would join the