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Texas Senatorial Forum - Austin
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Jun 5, 2025
Candidates for the U.S. Senate from Texas spoke and were quizzed at this two-hour event in the Texas State Capitol July 30, 2011, hosted by NewRevolutionNow.org and the tea parties of Austin and Llano.
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howy Texas howy
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Cowboys howdy cowg girls howdy
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Patriots it's a great day to be in Texas today little warm outside but it's great
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to be here I'm Dean right with New Revolution now and I want to welcome you to the tour of Texas senatorial for in
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Austin it's the third in a series of six that we're doing around the state we've
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already done one in Houston we've done one in San Antonio after this one we'll be doing
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one in Waco in a couple weeks then Dallas I'm going to end up In tha and
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everybody's really excited about it we had great participation to this point
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for uh more information on our events go to new Revolution now.org
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and uh click on the right side we have our calendar of events everything's on there
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and you can check it out and see the dates and when we're doing it
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also even better if you want to join the revolution you can sign up for our
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newsletter the handil the Patriot briefing and event invitations by
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texting if you have a phone that you can text with nrn text nrn to
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22828 and if you do that today next week we're going to have a
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drawing for this great t-shirt does anybody know what amendment X
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is 10 Amendment we all know people up in DC
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don't know how many of you are here from the
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te party where's my L te party let's hear a shout out party okay how many
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from the Austin tea party you guys AR very loud how about
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the uh Texas 25th conservatives bu how about the will tea
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party okay how about San Antonio tea party I know there's a few they may not
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made it how about some 912 groups [Applause] about some Li Liberty loving
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groups and how many are here who are engaged concerned
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citizens it's because of you the flame of Liberty and freedom and Justice burns
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brighter in Austin and in Texas and in these United States I want want to thank
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you for being here and for being engaged I also want to thank the uh
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Texas preservation board for setting up this beautiful facility for us this is great uh want to thank uh representative
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Jason Isaac for being our sponsor our legislative [Applause]
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sponsor and for all of the host volunteers that came from the uh Austin tea party L Tea Party
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and the willco in Texas 25th tea parties thank you for making this
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happen uh before I get started let's pay our respects and uh say the Pledge of
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Allegiance I'm going to have Jason Isaac is going to lead us in the
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pledge flag the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one
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nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all
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[Music]
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new Revolution now Institute is a party neutral candidate neutral
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organization but when it comes to advocating for our founding American
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principles we are anything but neutral we are strong
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advocates for free markets limited government personal
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responsibility constitutional constructionism a virtuous America and a
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strong National Defense today he's founding American
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principles that our forefathers sacrificed and died for are under constant
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attack and considered extreme to those who want to fundamentally change
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America and we know who these people are don't we they're out in the
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open they've been in bolon by the curent current s government
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regime they're no longer hiding they're out in the open aggressively pushing
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their destructive agenda well Patriots no longer will We the People
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subject ourselves to the status and the power moners for you who use the
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overwhelming force of the central government to usurp The Constitution's mandates of of personal Liberty and
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economic freedom the new American Revolution has
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begun and your engagement in this fight is key to our Victory thanks to the great wisdom of
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our forefathers we have a peaceful way of fighting back and restore our country
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and that is Through The Ballot Box we must select citizen candidates
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that do not moderate compromise or Surrender our
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core founding principles and values for see that
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[Music] today and I paraphrase from my friend
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Apostle Claver anyone who moderates compromises or surrenders our
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founding American principles is an enemy of Liberty and is seeking to destroy
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America as is as it was
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[Applause]
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counted folks I want to encourage you to get engaged to join the revolution
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there's no excuse nowadays the Tea Party movements the conservative grass movements have matured and grown and if
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you're not involved you need to get involved opportunities to get involved are plentiful it uh just
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takes uh you putting forth the initiative tea party and Liberty loving
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groups are meeting almost every night and weekend here locally we have socials
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we have speakers nights we have movie Nights we have special events going on
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constantly how do you keep the flame of Freedom burning bright Within you you get
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enlightened empowered and you become engaged and how do you take back
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America you merge those flames of Freedom into a giant Fireball that burns
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away the evil and the Darkness and it reveals truth and life
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and that is the Tea Party Movement
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okay are you ready to rumble yeah to be clear uh we have invited all
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declared candidates for the Texas US Senate race in the past two forums that
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includes from every Party U in the past three forums all the
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Republican candidates that have particip all the Republican candidates have participated and the Democrat candidates
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have refused this time around all the demat rat candidates have refused to give along with one Republican
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candidate the lieutenant governor now I don't know I didn't know
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until yesterday and I guess was bad planning on my part but there's a very
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high-profile TV show that's doing uh auditions in town today in Austin does
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anybody know what that [Music]
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TV did you biggest
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Li that's going on I would never have cled this had I known that that was going
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on so my only assumption was that the lieutenant governor decided to attend
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the audition for the biggest
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gra to be here with you today and you know might be smart probably he probably
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thought a larger crowd was going to be there more
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FaceTime I heard his campaign likes to attract Fat
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Cats we do have a space for him up here Cas he decides to show up it's just upstairs
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uh candidates uh the candidates here today have drawn for their seats seat assignments and we placed them out here
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um and uh I'll be introducing U uh them shortly a place for uh the lieutenant
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governor and general Sanchez has also been reserved at both ends of the table
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uh the panel uh may or may not address questions to
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them if receive uh if we receive no answer from the candidate that's not here we
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will assume they do not want the format is such we're starting
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off with a 902nd introductory statement from each one of the candidates then we'll move after that
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we'll move into the lightning round each candidate will receive the same question and begin the 30 second
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response there will be six Iden questions to each one of the candidates for each one of the rounds of the Ling
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the second round the candidates will be questioned randomly but equally in other words the candidates will receive all
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the same number of questions not the same questions but the same number of questions 60c response from each one of
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those questions up to three follow-up questions from the panel uh with 30
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second responses uh can happen if the panel decides to do followup question we
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have 30 seconds to respond then we'll end with a 90c closing statement and
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we'll be done with the uh with the Forum part the candidates will receive a
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yellow a yellow 30 second warning sign 30 seconds into their answer there we go
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right there Bill's gu and then they will receive a red stop
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sign at the end of their time
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each of you should have received a straw pole ballot in your flyer today at the
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end of the event you'll be asked to complete it and turn it into one of the uh hosts volunteers and uh or uh to a
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box on the uh table outside here well we have ushers uh volunteers along the edge here
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that you can turn them into make sure you don't leave until you until you turn those in results of the polls will uh be
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released Statewide tomorrow this will be our third poll so it'll be interesting to see uh how how
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it all turns out we'll have a uh short meet and greet afterwards in the legislative Conference
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Center downstairs go directly out to the right down the stairs that's where the
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legislative Conference Center is um um if you need to use restrooms or
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break we have a break area with with the drinks and stuff um we have uh hosts out
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front that can direct you to that okay let me give a very quick brief
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introduction to the candidates in their opening statement they'll give a more detailed introduction to themselves so
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let's bring them in the first will be Glenn Addison he's a small business
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owner from Magnolia Texas [Applause]
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I've got these out of order sorry but Glenn alphabe yeah I got an
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alphab uh let's try to go in order here next one down there is Ted Cruz is the
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former Texas
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and we have Tom leopard is the former Dallas mayor and CEO of
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Dallas and we have Leela [Applause]
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Pinger I just want to uh say thank you to all of these candidates for being
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here uh they get asked to be places many times a day uh they've been great as far
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as attending our our forums and uh they're true U uh true servants and
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they're sacrificing a lot and we really appreciate uh now I'd like to introduce
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our Allstar Grassroots panel in the Red
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Corner this panel member resides in Dripping sprs this is a co-founder and director
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of new Revolution now a successful high-tech entrepreneur and CEO and a
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self self-proclaimed pissed off Patriot we have Barry
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[Applause]
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Walker in the white Corner this panel member resides in Austin Texas is an attorney and director
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of legislative affairs at the Liberty Institute he's the go-to guy for Fox
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News and other National media when it comes to legislating legislation and values
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issues in Texas we have Jonathan
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[Applause] Sims and in the blue Corner this panel
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member claims to be from Houston I really think he's from
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Mars he's the founder and executive director of raging elephant you all have heard about him Apostle Claver
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[Applause]
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K okay the uh candidates have drawn for the uh their positioning on the
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lightning round the first question will go to Ted Cruz
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opening statements yes uh the first uh opening statement will conf
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from thank you very much Dean thank you everyone for being here on a Saturday afternoon thank you for taking the time
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away from your families and for your dedication to stand up and fight for
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liberty we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created
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equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that
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among these are life liberty and the pursuit of
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happiness our nation was founded by Patriots who were willing to risk
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everything to fight for liberty they pledge their
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lives fortunes and sacred honor to standing and fighting for Liberty and I
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am incredibly optimistic right now because we are seeing across this country
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a Great Awakening that hearkens back to the time of the founding President Obama is the most
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radical president this nation has ever
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had we have never before seen a federal government expand power and control over
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the economy and our lives like this government has and yet all across Texas
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and all across the nation Americans are rising up to defend our Liberty and to
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defend our constitution so I want to start by thanking every man and woman in this room for being willing to stand up
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and fight to preserve our nation because like our Founders we we're fighting to preserve our nation and every candidate
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here ask with every answer what is your record of doing so thank you
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[Applause]
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next we have Tom leard well I want to join Ted and I speak I I speak for the other participants to to thank you for
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being here uh clearly there's a lot of different things you can be doing on a Saturday afternoon your commitment to be
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here but also the commitment to ensure that we're successful in 2012 building off the successes of 2010 are very
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important and that's going to be the key to our Victory I can tell you right now that I believe that it's time that
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people approach the problems and the challenges that face our country in an honest and straightforward fashion I can
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tell you what's coming out of Washington literally today indicates that that's not the case we need to have people
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going to be honest they going to be straightforward the reality of it is where we stand today that our country is moving towards insolvency very quickly
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and we have an economy that's staged for too long we have relied on
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professional politicians politicians that were more interested in getting elected and they were ensuring that we
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have a strong future long in a strong future long ahead of us what we need to
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have is different leadership people that actually understand how the free enterprise system works people that have
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created jobs people that have actually cut spending and are willing to make those tough choices I'm willing to make
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those tough choices both the public and private sector I've done there I've also created thousands of jobs and I can tell
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you that creating thousands of those jobs we didn't have help from either the Democratic or Republican party it was
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done by the free enterprise system and it's that reversion back to the free enterprise system becomes critical for our economy and for our economy to be
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successful that ensures that we'll be a strong Nation with values and commitment
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that'll influence this world thank
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you now we have Glenn Addison I'd like to start by thanking our sponsors and all the volunteers that made this happen
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today my name is Glenn Addison I'm a small businessman a funeral director happened to own a couple of funeral
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homes my wife and I a couple of small cemeteries I'm an independent-minded Conservative Republican that likes te
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what I don't care for are elitists in our party telling me how I need to vote
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I have a mind thank you very much and it working I also don't mind tell you that
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I'm a bit fed up with career politicians and establishment candidates now if you want a career politician or another
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attorney I'm not your man however if you in the spirit of the founding fathers would like to see a citizen legislator
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who will go to Washington for 6 years serve the people who will have no hooks in who will not take the lavish pension and
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the elaborate Healthcare and the other many many perks then I'm your man some of you remember what Einstein said about
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Insanity it's doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results yet every two years we Republicans March
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to the primary booth and we have a choice to make from establishment candidates and we all time all the time
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think maybe this time well it just doesn't seem to happen very much and so I would say to you that that I am tired
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of that uh when a kind of wraps itself in a cocoon and sometime later a
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butterfly comes out it's a beautiful thing when an establishment candidate Goes to Washington and wraps themselves
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in the trappings of power and the power of the incumbency and all the perks they come out a career politician and I don't
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like that it's not a good sign hope that you'll give me
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[Applause] consideration now we have Leela
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pittinger hi I am Leela pittinger and and I'm very excited to have all of you here thank you for giving us your day
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thank you for braving the heat hopefully it'll be hotter in here before it's over I'm very excited to see you all here and
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I'm glad to see everyone so invested in what's coming up today I think it's very important we get an early start because
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there are so many candidates and that's the exciting thing about this year is I feel like this year on every level we
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have a variety of choices it used to be that the parties were pretty much reduce
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reuse recycle better than the Environmental lists reduce the number of people involved reuse the same candidates and recycle the same old
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words I don't think so anymore I'm very excited to tell you that I'm running and
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I believe that everyone in this race I'm the most Heavenly invested in whether we get this right as you only have to be 30
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years old to be a US senator and we don't have a single one under 40 I think it's important we get that voice at the
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table I love when all the candidates say we need to save this country for our children and grandchildren because as
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one of them I'd like to say we'd like our own voice at at the table you can try to make your decisions for us all day long but quite frankly
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when you continue to promise my money which you haven't earned quite frankly you're taken by theft I'm going to get a
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little upset and I'm going to get really involved so the next time someone tells you that we need to look for the
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candidate who raises the the most money I hope you will look them in the eye and say I've seen the best government money
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can buy and it ain't pretty [Applause]
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as a citizen candidate I love everybody up here but I hope I can have your vote thank you very
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much right now we have David
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D we'll move on to the lightning round now uh we uh Drew for for who is going
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to be first who's going to get the first question uh on the lightning round and that is Ted Cruz Fire Away
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guys gr candidates thanks for giving us your time to come up this
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afternoon uh Mr Cruz what is your definition of federalism my definition of Federalism
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is limiting the size power and spending in the federal government uh Dean mentioned the 10th Amendment I spent
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much of 2010 meeting the center for 10th Amendment studies with the Texas public policy foundation and what I'm probably
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best known for nationally is being one of the leading Defenders of the 10th Amendment defining and devising
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strategies to attack Obamacare to repeal every syllable of every word of
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Obamacare and to shrink the power of the federal government we need to defend the 10th Amendment and I spent a lifetime
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doing exactly that
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next question Excuse excuse me I the format
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was each you're correct she answers the same question okay all right um I would
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absolutely agree with Ted I believe federalism means that there's an absolutely limited government I think
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the only thing the government should be doing is what's very literally enumerated in the
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Constitution anyone anyone that tells you that we have a living Constitution is usually
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trying to kill it so I believe in strict literal interpretation which means strict literal constitutionalist judges
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from top to bottom if that means even that they perhaps get fired and
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[Applause] replaced thank you now Tom leard
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federalism totally limiting the role of the Federal Government doing it in a way that assigns roles of key functions to
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the States but it really also goes beyond that because the founding fathers understood that the best decisions are
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always made when they're closer to the people the further we get away from the people the worst the decisions become
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I've said publicly that I believe there's a witness test that ought to be for everybody in Congress and that's very simple if a bill or an idea comes
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before you and it reduces the role of Washington reduces the role of Washington to families and small
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businesses in Texas it should go forward if it doesn't it should go on trashing
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[Applause] that's already been said so let me just
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point to the article The Third Article which basically mentions that these judges should hold their office during
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good behavior we've got some bad boys and girls in the federal Judiciary and I would like to see that dealt with in a
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much stronger way it's a joke how they're uh enforcing the Constitution shredding it and so I agree with what
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these other should said as well
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all right new question to Le p in your opinion what is the correct
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level of debt for the United States government to carry on behalf of its citizens
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zero I'm sorry I mean I guess I could go on for 28 more seconds but I think zero
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really covers it and when they say that they're carrying the debt I love how they really try to put distance between
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it like it's the government's money I don't think so it's my money it's your
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money I wish that they pay taxes but quietly most quite frankly most of them don't and neither do their friends GE
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and so I think that when I say zero I mean zero and if they feel like they
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need to borrow then they should pass legislation that actually gets through people so thank
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[Applause] you Le the real key behind the question
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though is what is the debt and let's talk about that for just a second uh we have some people say that's $8 trillion
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other people say it's $144 trillion neither one is right the reality of is we all to look at it the same way that
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businesses have to look at it and that's reflect the future obligations and liability of the of their organization
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if we did that the number is somewhere between 65 and 90 trillion on a conservative side you do that at
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$700,000 per household that's got to come down substantially we can argue about zero that's fine but it has to
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come down substantially Because unless that comes down we don't have a strong engine
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I get teased about uh being tight I've been doing Dave Ramsey before
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Dave Ramsey did Dave Ramsey and uh I know that the founding fathers it just
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crushed their soul to leave any debt to the Next Generation and they worked diligently to make sure they couldn't
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sleep at night it's profound to me that the Democrats and liberals can't sleep at night if they can't figure out a way
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to increase the debt uh and so it bothers me Prof fin if we were to pay back $250 billion of principal each and
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every year it would take 56 years right now that is uncashable and thus we've got to make the rough decisions to cut
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it people are going to squeal all over the country but the squealing needs to
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begin I have two little girls a three-year-old and an 8-month old they were both born with tens of thousands of
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dollars in crippling debt we need to eliminate the federal debt I've been one
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of the leading National proponents of a balanced budget amendment and in this fight in Washington right now the people
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who are leading the fight Jim deit Senator Mike Lee Senator Rand Paul who
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are standing up to the squishy establishment Republicans all three of them have
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endorsed my campaign and said we need another strong constitutional conservative to hold the line and to
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fight to eliminate the
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debt new question goes to Tom leopard good afternoon candidates uh
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since 1973 and the Row versus way decision there's been nearly 50 million abortions
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in our country so candidates starting with Mr leopard do you support the overturning of Rue versus Wade yes very
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clearly to me it's a faith issue uh my leadership is determined by my faith and by the Constitution as a result of that
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I'm pro-life and I believe marriages between one man and one woman
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[Applause] Amon this is my unborn granddaughter
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Lany she's due October the 23rd I've always been pro-life I will always be
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pro-life because that's what my Lord ask me to be it is unconscionable at the
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number of children in this Nations there it is she looks like me by the way can't you
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tell it it's unconscionable to me how so many people view it as a blob but it is
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a child and it breaks my heart uh when I hear of it happening day after day
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[Applause] afterday I am strongly and unequivocally
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Pro lifee I mentioned in the opening statement you should ask if every candidate here in not here not what do
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we say because every candidate will say their pro- lifee what is your proven record if you notice every answer I give
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points to my record of fighting for the principles at question with respect to life as the solicitor general I
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successfully defended the federal partial birth abortion act before the US Supreme Court I successfully defended
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paral notification laws and I successfully defended Texas laws that prohibit the use of taxpayer money going
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to organizations that provide a we need to walk the walk and not just talk the
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talk I love that Ted brings up a record because as the only one at this table who's carried a life I feel like I have
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a pretty strong stand against the feminist in the Senate as a pro-life woman I'll tell you right now we only
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have one pro-life woman in the United States Senate one out of 100 I'm ready
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to stand up to those women and tell them quite frankly all these people who seem to believe believe that you should only
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have a baby if you have enough money must think that only the wealthy should be having children so so do you I believe in
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overturning R versus Wade and as someone who's had a child without health care and paid cash to my pocket I believe
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that you need to be completely dedicated to it and I am I'm the only one that can stand them down on this
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one new question to Tom leard Mr leard the first lightning round
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question start okay so you started that one okay
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I'm SED question to Glenn Addison okay Mr
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Addison the first like question I ask I ask for your definition each of your definition of
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federalism I'm asking you this time what is your definition of conservatism maybe you guys got kind of got
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confused Mr Addison right ahead my definition of conservatism is that the
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federal government should be as restricted and small as possible uh the Constitution has been shredded
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especially the 10th Amendment and Article 1 Section one uh clear and blatant abuses of powers that belong to
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the states uh if it were up to me there would be very few uh bureaucrats in Washington DC that would mainly be in
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the state capitals across this land where the Constitution says that they should and then it's up to the people in
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the various states to decide if they want to have various programs and to what extent but the size of the federal
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government I think is the defining power with regard to that word and it must be
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reduced again and again and
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again Cruz when I worked in the Justice Department I worked for John Ashcraft
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and ashc used to say if I'm ever accused of being a Christian I'd like for that
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have be enough evidence to convict me that is powerfully true and it's
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equally true of being a conservative in a Texas Republican primary everyone campaigns as a conservative the
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scripture tells us you shall know them by their deeds if you are truly a conservative you shouldn't have to tell
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anyone because you will have been in the foxholes fighting for those principles and you will bear the stripes of
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defending the constitution of Defending freedom of defending our rights and
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that's the basis of my [Applause]
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campaign if you look at the word conservative it means to maintain a system as it is if you look at the
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Constitution and our Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights that is the correct system sadly we've built
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on this solid foundation a shoddy ant ridden rickety house that
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quite frankly needs to be torn down the foundation is fine it's the house we
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built upon it that's a mess it can be fixed I believe conservatism means the
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most limited form of government I believe it means that each person cares for themselves and their own family and
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it starts with you moves to your family and gradually moves out instead of top [Music]
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[Applause] down I really think there's two aspects in your inter you begin with the
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Constitution and view the Constitution not as an Arcane document but something that literally is the rule look that we
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govern with on an ongoing basis but I think it also goes beyond that I think there's a sense of values to this nation
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a sense of values is what right and what's wrong a sense of values that says this nation really is going to be
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excellent and there's something special that it has to offer to the world so I think it's both of those elements it's
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not only the Constitution strong down in there but it's also a sense of values that sets us apart
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[Applause] new question to Ted
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Cruz in your opinion what is the correct level of Taxation for the United States
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governments to levy on each of its citizens as low as humanly
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possible every one of us will tell you that we won't raise taxes if you want to
37:19
know if that's true you should look to who's had a record of standing strong over and over again not only will I
37:25
never vote to raise taxes I will fight to lower taxes and your question on each of the citizens what I'd like to see us
37:32
move towards and what I fight to see us move towards is a simplified T tax
37:37
system that moves as close to a flat tax and ultimately to a fair tax that is a
37:44
consumption tax not plac on any
37:51
[Applause] of I don't think you can say humanly possible because it's inhuman what's
37:56
going on in Washington DC what I will say is I believe in the flat and fair tax and quite frankly I think 10% is the
38:02
limit if it's good enough for God it's good enough
38:11
for I've been the one that actually has fought against taxes and not only talked about I had to take the arrows on it
38:17
also put together budgets that showed you can make it work without raising taxes I'll be much more specific I
38:23
believe what we need is a flat tax in this nation that only has a deductions for family for charitable contributions
38:28
and for mortgage that flat tax ought to be 20% there also ought to be a flat corporate tax and taking all the
38:34
discounts in the games that are being played out of it with the capital gains tax of 15% I'll be very specific that's
38:40
not only beneficial to each one of you it is also Fair it pulls in all the people of this nation and importantly
38:46
creates an economy that creates [Music]
38:52
jobs as a small businessman because of all the bureaucracy I have to doal with I had five corporations not by choice
38:58
but because of necessity one for each of my funeral homes each of my saries and my crator it makes me Furious how much I
39:03
have to write a check to my CPA although he's a good man but uh but I do want to say that you know people need to
39:09
understand that that corporations don't pay tax we pay their tax the customers pay their tax and until we deal with
39:15
that we will not grow this economy jobs are continuing to go overseas and droves because people are saying why do we want
39:21
to work our hearts out when it's going to be redistributed and that is a big cause of it's got to be dealt with get
39:27
this economy going [Music]
39:33
again new question to Le pittinger L pittinger uh there have been
39:40
a lot of court cases here recently where courts or judges have overturned the
39:45
will of the people regarding the definition of marriage do you support a
39:50
federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man one woman I
39:56
love that question thank you as much as I believe in states rights here is the difficulty on states rights with
40:02
marriage while we would continue to mind our own business the far-left activist
40:08
groups are pushing and condemning usually only Christians when it comes to
40:13
this issue they are taking their businesses to court if they will not serve in their marriages there's a
40:18
couple in New York right now that they are being sued because they won't let their home be used as a place for a
40:25
wedding for a gay marriage there are people who are in all parts of the wedding industry who are being sued
40:30
because they will not serve in a gay marriage as much as I wish that when when they pretend that we're going to be
40:36
equally protected as Christians I know it's not true they're on the attack they're closing Catholic Ministries when
40:41
it comes to abortion we have to have a federal marriage amendment to protect the Christians in this country as
40:47
[Applause] well as I said earlier it's very clear
40:52
to me to me it's a faith issue marriage is a fund as one woman and one man period
41:01
I absolutely favor that Amendment uh marriage is a sacred word it is a Biblical word and it is offensive to
41:08
those of us who are trying to walk in the light when a a word that has so much power and meaning to our father our
41:15
heavenly father and his son that we cannot compromise on that people are free to do what they wish in the priv of
41:21
their home but don't don't mess up a word that is a Godly word so absolutely
41:28
I support that
41:33
any yes Jonathan I said border a marriage Amendment but don't take my word for it don't take any political
41:40
candidate's word for it on this I have aen record as the solicitor general of Texas when a bont state district judge
41:48
granted a divorce to two men that had got in a civil union in Vermont Kelly
41:54
Shackleford who leads the Liberty Institute called me as the solicitor general pointed it out to me and within
41:59
24 hours we intervened in the proceeding to defend traditional marriage between
42:05
one man and one woman and the judge vacated the order look to actions and
42:10
not just [Applause]
42:15
words okay now we move to the second round candidates will be questioned
42:21
randomly but equally uh with a 30 second response in three possible followups of
42:29
30
42:34
seconds Mr Cruz um first question I'm going to POS directly to you please in light of the current
42:42
demographic composition and future demographic trajectory of
42:47
Texas how has your campaign worked to earn the support of Voters of
42:53
color more specifically black voters 2008 the GOP ticket received 2% of the
43:00
black vote in Texas in the future if this does not change whether you win this time or not
43:08
six years so now your chances of reelection will be diminish greatly for you or any of your other opponents that
43:14
um may take the Y of office we do not find a way to bring more racial diversity into the conservative voting
43:21
base the chances of conservatives winning in the future will be zero in the state of Texas what have you done
43:26
now now what do you plan to do in the future to broaden the conservative Lo base Apostle cler thank thank you for
43:33
that question it's an incredibly important question there is no doubt the future of
43:39
the Republican party in Texas and nationally is very short live if we do
43:44
not connect with the African-American community and the Hispanic community and the way we don't do that is watering
43:50
down our conservative principles
43:56
[Applause] my dad came as an immigrant to this country from Cuba with nothing he didn't
44:02
speak a word of English he had no money he he came with a $100 sewn into his underwear to go to the University of
44:09
Texas he worked 50 cents an hour as a dishwasher to pay his way through UT and the story of America every one of
44:18
us has ancestors like that who came here seeking freedom and opportunity the
44:23
story that resonates in the Hispanic community in the African-American Community is the story of the American
44:29
dream of opportunity of self-reliance of ownership of climbing and achieving the
44:34
American dream and we need to defend that principle and carry that message
44:40
and that's why our campaign sing enormous enthusiasm in particular among the Hispanic Community all across the
44:45
state of Texas do we have our follow I I appreciate that um but can
44:52
you be more specific what is your campaign doing specific specifically to
44:57
attract black voters is it in your campaign plan when was the last time you've been to an African-American
45:04
Community to campaign there have you ever done retail politics in the third W of our hometown of Houston Texas have
45:10
you been over in the I35 East 35 in the 5 51st and mayor area it's great to give
45:17
us the platitudes give us the specifics the specifics are standing and
45:24
defending conservative principles and making the case most Republican
45:29
candidates don't like it when issues of Race come up because fundamentally most Republicans believe the Democratic
45:36
talking point that conservative policies favor the rich and not the poor what I
45:42
am doing is campaigning all over the state of Texas and building a Grassroots team but making the case to those who
45:49
are working to climb the economic ladder that the policies of the left produce
45:54
dependency destroy ownership destroy self-reliance and they don't work the
46:00
way you climb the economic ladder is you Empower individuals to take care of their families and work towards the
46:07
American future and I will be an unrelenting voice to empowering minorities and empowering every Texon
46:13
and every American to take responsibility for his or her future do we have another follow
46:20
question okay let's move to the next
46:25
question let's stay with this theme Mr leopard um education is a civil rights
46:31
issue of our time it's been 67 years since the Supreme Court outlawed School segregation and in those 67 years black
46:37
Americans have gotten an education system in which black children lag consistently behind their white
46:42
counterparts by an average of almost four years given this a busal record why do we have a Department of Education and
46:49
shouldn't it be abolished an educational Authority return to the states and the
46:55
citizens the answer is yes uh that needs to be at the local level and that's
47:00
where it's most effective as I said before it's pushing the decision back down but is also people that will engage
47:06
education use it as a bully pulit when I was mayor of the city of Dallas I had no responsibility over education but yet it
47:14
was a major thing because we could make a difference I put all my salary into
47:19
scholarships for kids coming out of tough neighborhoods we created programs
47:24
like early reading programs and internship programs that didn't take any tax dollars but yet they contributed
47:30
significantly what we need to do at the local level on education is very simple you needs to improve governance
47:36
governance and accountability is terrible in metropolitan areas across this nation and especially in Texas
47:41
number two you need to empower teachers and principles in different ways allow principles to make Staffing decisions
47:48
the third thing is put more Choice into the system unless you have 15 to 20% choice in a system that will influence
47:54
the rest of the public school system it doesn't make any difference difference and the fourth thing is finally come up with standards that mean something you
48:00
might have seen recently that we came out in Texas and pointed out that the standards we've used for the last two
48:05
years were a joke we finally got back to right standards and schools didn't perform I would give a strong Advocate
48:12
on saying education has to be at the local level get Washington out of it but I will also use the position as a bully
48:18
pulpit to be able to communicate how important education is to the future of our country do we have a followup to
48:24
that follow up have a new question this
48:30
questions from Mr Addison following a little bit of that theme as well let's exclude the Department of Education uh
48:37
other than that if that might have been your answer what federal programs or departments would you eliminate entirely
48:45
to balance the budget well I would like to stick with that department just for a moment because my proposal U if I'm
48:52
elected most of my legislation will begin with this bill is to repeal and then fill in the blank now I would I
49:00
would all federal legislation that deals with prek through 12th grade I would save one bureaucrat to write 50 checks
49:07
to the 50 states with a note attached that says Dear state of Texas for example attached to your sherff federal
49:13
education dollars use it as you deem appropriate we've been I'm on the school board for M year for 15 years that's
49:18
where a lot of these gray hair came from from the Department of Education and they are not real bright when it comes
49:24
to educating our children I'm trying to be polite here uh but but I would use that philosophy across the board we need to repeal for
49:30
example uh the entitlement aspect of Medicaid and once again we could use that same bureaucrat to write a check to
49:38
the 50 states with a not attach that says something like this dear state of Texas attached as your share of federal
49:44
Medicaid dollars after verifying citizenship use it as you appropr
49:49
[Applause]
49:57
I saw the right side do we have a follow up I I do have a follow up um you mentioned being on the school board you
50:04
may have seen that there was a fight last year uh at our state's Board of Education regarding teaching history and
50:10
social study standards having more teaching about the founding fathers the Constitution and so on but there's an
50:15
effort for national standards to be used do you respect or what is your view
50:21
should it be the state or the national level that decides our standards I'll tell you my view the state are fantastic
50:28
incubators of innovation they know whether they like it or not they better have the strongest education system in
50:34
the country or else they will not attract industry so even if they're not excited about it they know they better be excited about it or else we will not
50:40
attract industry and commerce to our state and so we need to get out of the way and let the states compete when
50:45
Illinois raised their personal income tax and corporate income tax about 2third about a year ago guess what some
50:51
of the other states started doing hey Illinois businesses move to our state you won't be tax near as much we must
50:58
have that competitive nature at the state level and let me tell you something it will work so so you support the states being in control States
51:04
absolutely because if we don't like what the states do we can vote those State reps and state senators out you cannot vote out a
51:18
bureaucrat question Mrs fer Mr CL
51:29
sorry we know each other really well I need to pass one just a little as the 14th Amendment is written
51:38
yes do you believe the children born to illegal immigrants should be US citizens when the 14th amendment was written it
51:45
was dealing with people who were brought here by force in a murderous way the children that are born here may not be
51:52
able to choose but their parents usually aren't brought here by force and a murderous way sadly human trafficking and slaving
52:00
has become a very bad very big part of American society 25% of the human
52:06
trafficking in America happens in Texas alone but I believe that the best way to make good citizens of people is to make
52:14
their encourage their country to do better when the other 90 countries these people are coming from do a better job
52:20
their citizens won't be here in the meantime they don't they're not citizens here the solution to the problem as it
52:28
as as it's been ruled by courts it it appears that jurisdictions across the
52:34
country very if the so-called anchor baby problem here in the state of Texas I mean you look at Houston where 80% of
52:41
children born in in the public hospitals or to illegal immigrants and they are being issued birth certificates from the
52:47
state of Texas or from Harris County or from Travis County or wherever it may be right okay you're you're applying for
52:54
the position of being our the public ciruit from the state of Texas in Washington right what is your solution
53:01
to the problem I mean you can't you can't do anything about the quality of life in Mexico you can't do with
53:06
anything about the quality of life in Nicaragua you wouldn't know that for how much money we're giving
53:12
them what I would say is every child that's born here at least one of their
53:17
parents which quite frankly I think should have a paternity test needs to per uh provide a long form birth
53:24
certificate proving that they are in American citizen and at least one of their parents preferably the mother
53:30
because usually it's the mother taking care of the children but we I can stick with the father if they can prove it's him and
53:38
that child can be an American citizen does that answer your question would you do that through a constitutional
53:43
amendment how would you get that done sadly I think we're going to we would have to have clarification on the
53:49
14th Amendment because so many people I think are misreading it and misreading the history behind it so yes there may
53:55
have to be a con stitutional Amendment okay we go to a new question
54:01
now follow m p i I believe in in case I
54:06
missed something the other three candidates have at some point indicated they were in some elective office or in
54:11
a service position or they had a some record that they could point to uh so I want to give you the opportunity if you
54:18
might want to address um what your what you would say as far as is your record as far as voting or in some public
54:24
servic I've always voted Republican when it comes to Public Service I haven't used taxpayer dollars to advance my
54:31
career I've been living as a normal person living conservative values and they're not just talking points examples
54:38
being in the audience this afternoon is my husband's grandmother she had a stroke and we didn't want her to have to
54:43
be by herself or be cared for by strangers so my husband and I moved in with her to give her the best care
54:49
possible on top of that while I was caring for her we wanted to have a full life so Betty and I both served in
54:57
different pro-life groups doing volunteer work we were doing Meals on Wheels we were volunteer teachers at the
55:03
church we were volunteer Junior Bible quiz teachers at the church we were living our daily lives with conservative
55:09
values added to that are the things that I did not participate in half the kids in Texas are born on Medicaid when they
55:16
had that for me because my husband and I are considered low income I said no I've
55:21
been living the values on a daily basis I may not get to stand in front of probably the third highest Authority in
55:27
the land I would say God first the legislation second what I will say is I've had to stand before my God and tell
55:33
him I'm living my values and that I can face him and my family with a great deal of
55:41
[Applause] dignity okay I want to remind the uh
55:46
candidates that you have 60 seconds to respond to the initial question and then 30 seconds on the
55:53
reut do I have a question for David do her
56:01
Mr doers can answer this if You' like but I'll direct it to Mr Cruz Congress has clearly exceeded its
56:07
Authority for decades by its overreaching use of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution Article 178 States
56:13
in part that Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign Nations and among the several States one
56:18
of the most dramatic and Infamous oversteps was the Wier B filburn Supreme Court decision of 1942 in which farmer
56:23
Rosco filburn was found guilty of violating the law for growing weak to feed his own family clearly the framers
56:30
never intended that a US citizen would lose so much Freedom that the federal government would prevent him from growing his own food what is your
56:37
opinion of the Commerce Clause and what will you do if elected to the United States Senate to legislatively ensure
56:43
that the federal government is returned to a more restrained relationship with the citizenry the Commerce Clause has been
56:50
the the most significant vehicle for the dramatic expansion of the federal government's Authority the decision you
56:56
referenced wiard versus philburn was the absolute worst decision expanding the federal government's power that the
57:02
Supreme Court issued and it is the basis for the Obama Administration claiming Authority for ObamaCare now I am
57:09
convinced Obamacare will be struck down by the US Constitution because it exceeds the authority of the federal
57:16
government to regulate private decisions that are not Interstate Congress on this
57:23
as with every question that has been asked I don't just say trust me I say look to my record if you want to know my
57:29
views on Wicker against philburn in the 10th Amendment look to the papers we wrote when I led the center for 10th
57:35
Amendment studies where I have for great length talked about Wier versus filburn and how the Commerce Clause has been
57:41
expanded and look also for example as a solicitor general of Texas I led a
57:47
coalition of States before the US Supreme Court arguing that The Endangered Species Act was
57:53
unconstitutional as applied to an Roo toad in California that was being used
57:59
to shut down development and we urge the Supreme Court to strike it down as exceeding congress's power under the
58:06
Commerce Clause and you can go to my website on tedcruz.org and read the Supreme Court briefly we made that
58:12
argument a great
58:17
place follow question from Mr Cruz um Mr Cruz you spent a lot of time doing work
58:24
the US Supreme Court you talked about some of these cases' done work in Washington DC um at some very high
58:31
intellectual levels but what is your plan for being able to be at the level
58:37
of meeting with constituents and making sure that they feel they're part of of
58:42
what you do and that you're you can meet them where they are Jonathan we are doing it every day
58:49
listen I am not a politician I've never held elected office I don't have the
58:55
resources to spend millions of dollars of money to try to get elected the only
59:00
way we're going to win this race is doing what we're doing right now which is building a conservative Grassroots
59:07
tea party Army all across the state of Texas we I have been traveling all over the state we've got over 61,000
59:14
supporters on Facebook and what has provided the strength and energy and enthusiasm of the campaign has been
59:20
individual citizens hungry for leadership to stand up and lead the
59:26
fight to stop the Obama agenda to defend free market principles and to defend the Constitution and I need the help of
59:32
every man and woman here to win this race do we have
59:39
another I'm gonna I'm going to go back please and direct you to my actual question which was what is what will you
59:46
do legislatively to ensure that the federal government is return to a more restrained relationship particularly
59:52
around the Commerce Clause legislatively the first bill I'll introduce is in the US Senate is a bill to repeal every
59:58
syllable of every word of [Music] Obamacare the next thing I will do is
1:00:06
look on every front for every legislative Avenue to shrink the size power and spending of the federal
1:00:12
government that includes eliminating agencies that includes shrinking the overall level across the board and that
1:00:18
includes most fundamentally passing a balanced budget amendment to put in the
1:00:23
Constitution what Thomas Jefferson called chains to bind the Mischief of
1:00:34
government okay we go to a new question your question Mr Le uh
1:00:41
please enlighten the folks here with your view and your beliefs and opinions
1:00:47
on the Second Amendment um very simply as I said earlier the Second Amendment is the rule
1:00:56
it's that simple I am a strong proponent of the Second Amendment I am a strong proponent of guns right gun rights and I
1:01:03
believe that again that is the law that is what the basis of our nation
1:01:11
is follow up yeah I have
1:01:16
one on the Second Amendment um what permission does the
1:01:22
federal government have to regulate that right I I don't believe that they do
1:01:27
again if you start with the premise that the constitution is the rule book and
1:01:33
then go back and say okay as people have done and you've seen a number of cities and I saw it as mayor a number of cities
1:01:39
stood up and tried to dilute the Second Amendment I never did I stood firm when
1:01:45
Mayors were signing petitions to change the Second Amendment and I said no it is
1:01:52
the second amendment that is the rule of law you do not delude it you don't go back door on this all I can tell you is
1:01:59
what I did okay so you know we're trying to I think the
1:02:05
spirit of us on the panel is we're trying to see if we can get into the soul of each year okay and so the
1:02:11
questions may seem a little bit um I don't know off a little bit but we we
1:02:18
really want to see what's in your hearts okay so if the government has no permission to regulate our rights to
1:02:25
bear arms to what extent can we bear arms in other words if the government has an MX
1:02:31
missile can I have one we have the right to bear arms well
1:02:37
but I understand that but the question is if you were to go out and ask a regular citizen the government has a
1:02:44
tomahawk cruise missile but as a regular citizen know that only the government
1:02:49
has the right to owns those types of Weaponry if I have the ability to maintain a tomaha cruise missile I'm try
1:02:55
TR to figure out do you feel at any level where you say no the regular the normal citizen shouldn't have that
1:03:01
Weaponry I'm sure you can take it to some ridiculous extreme that's not a practical basis the reality of the
1:03:08
Americans the people in the United States unlike any other nation that I
1:03:13
know of have the right to bear arms that is the rule of law that is the supreme
1:03:18
law of our country that needs to be the situation I am tired of people coming in
1:03:25
and trying to come up with any way to dute it and play games on the back side of it I just don't think that's right
1:03:32
again I don't believe that the constitution is on a cane document I believe it ought to be viewed as the
1:03:37
rule of law the rule book that we operate by today do we have a new question or we
1:03:44
have one more followup okay new question oh was me
1:03:52
again um actually Mr Cruz I I I did want to close this question to you but you
1:03:57
happen to mention it you you spoke about tea party and this is an event that is being
1:04:04
put on by what properly is known as a Grassroots organization and at the very
1:04:10
beginning Dean recognized me in the Tea Party grads organizations that are represented within the within the off
1:04:16
the audience you know it's all Vogue to be a Tea Party candidate it's all vote to
1:04:22
jump out of end of the parade and say I'm I'm te party I was tea party before there was a tea party but I want to know
1:04:28
if you could estimate how many tea party rallies have
1:04:33
you personally attended where you did not speak where you attended and actually
1:04:41
listened to other speakers did you help set up tables chairs microphone
1:04:48
system what tea parties have you given money to have you volunteered for do you have
1:04:56
tea party dirt underneath your [Applause]
1:05:05
fingernails I appreciate that question let me answer several ways
1:05:12
first of all I have spoken at tea parties all over the state of Texas indeed you and I both spoke at the fort
1:05:18
at the Fort Ben tea party on April 15th 2009 when the major tea parties launched
1:05:24
all over the state beyond that the issues that are animating the Tea Party are issues I've
1:05:31
spent a lifetime defending people now talk about the 10th Amendment and suddenly they're new found Defenders of
1:05:37
it when I was in college my senior thesis was based on the ninth and 10th Amendment that this has been a lifetime
1:05:45
devotion and so the support I have given have I helped organize tea parties
1:05:51
directly no because I've been willing to go and speak at them but what I have done is Trav Tred the state and sat down
1:05:57
in dozens of rooms with Tea Party activists and Tea Party leaders 10 20 30
1:06:02
activists and spent one two three hours talking and answering every questions in
1:06:09
small back room meeting rooms to hear the response of the people and one of the things that has been so overwhelming
1:06:14
generating the enthusiasm and support behind our campaign is a great many tea party leaders are getting excited about
1:06:22
a candidate for office that has been fighting for these princip and that is fighting alongside them arm
1:06:29
inarm and we fight to get it time
1:06:37
follow okay we go with a new question new question M
1:06:43
Pinger do you support term limits I do but I what I will tell you
1:06:49
is while we can term limit all the legislators if we don't find a way to put term limits on bureaucrat
1:06:56
nothing will
1:07:01
change it's a festering steaming compost heap up there and you got to turn the
1:07:08
heat I've talked to many legislators on the state and federal level who have said that whenever they've gone forward
1:07:14
with a bill that will limit reduce or eliminate an agency the bureaucrats smile at them and say go ahead I'll be
1:07:22
here long after you're gone these are people who are doing it as a career Eric Holder did not become Attorney General
1:07:29
just walking down the street he served in the AG's office for 20 years that means under Republican administrations
1:07:35
continuing to car out carry out his attitude and grow his career for this moment in time for himself we can
1:07:42
limitate we can limit the legislators but we've got to find ways to aside from
1:07:48
eliminating continue to limit the time people can serve in the bureaucracies and agencies
1:07:56
we have a follow so way you're you're for term
1:08:01
limits ter limits couldn't someone argue that's an
1:08:06
advocation of the the the responsibility that we have as the electorate supposed to be in the boss supposed to be vetting
1:08:13
those that we are um electing to office supposed to be our representation you could what
1:08:19
happens what happens if you have someone who's good I mean think of it if you what what happens if you look at it
1:08:25
practical business terms what if you have a good employee and somehow you're
1:08:30
limited on being able to utilize those services for the for the prosperity of
1:08:36
you and your family I love all the limited government politicians who actually have unlimited government jobs
1:08:42
on their resume I don't see anyone being limited you can move up you can move sideways I
1:08:48
mean we had a president in history who went back to Congress so he could put an end to his to slavery that was John
1:08:54
Quincy Adams he went from going up he went right back down in some people's eyes but he was that committed he you
1:09:01
can serve at any level of government from the most local level all the way up to the presidency and be appointed
1:09:06
outside of this country as a leader there is no limit to a quality person being able to serve this country and if
1:09:13
anyone wants to put a limit on them then for sure vote them out or make sure they're term limited but uh there's no
1:09:20
limit to serving your country and if you think it's only on the taxpayer dime then maybe you shouldn't be office
1:09:27
anyway follow I want to uh remind everybody we
1:09:33
did get uh lots of questions in from the registrant and uh if you uh panel
1:09:39
members are going to use one of those questions would you notify us just let us know that it's com in from the
1:09:45
registers here and so anyway I don't know if we've used any so far I thought you had those Dean
1:09:53
yeah right in my back okay um for Mr Asen the southern border
1:10:01
region is by any definition a war zone Federal government's unwillingness to
1:10:06
secure secure the Border ensures that illegal drug and human smuggling continues unabated for the length of our
1:10:12
border with Mexico in your opinion what should the federal government do to secure the southern border glad you
1:10:19
asked that these details are on my website by the way but let me just tell you something that I find unconscionable
1:10:24
and that is if you Apostle were in the Army and my precious wife right here were in the Army and somebody walks
1:10:30
across neither one of you have the power to apprehend that person walking across our border illegally that is outrageous
1:10:36
the 1878 posy comatus act must be amended to allow apprehension within at
1:10:42
least half a mile or a mile of our border having said that we need to have a come to Jesus meeting with Germany
1:10:48
Japan Italy and England and say you know it's been 66 years since World War II ended we need to bring some of the
1:10:54
100,000 troops home so that we can take care of our problems you boys and girls need to take care of your folks and we
1:11:01
will take care of ours it is [Applause]
1:11:10
uncons one there are so many of the questions that you've asked some of my colleagues up here that I wish I could respond to but nevertheless I am happy
1:11:17
to continue to address this because if we do not take step one to close the floodgates we're getting nowhere uh
1:11:24
there is no such say is cheap labor that's why I'm proposing what I've just said to you somebody says oh I got all my Landscaping done real cheap I went to
1:11:31
uh one of these day labor sites and picked up somebody you did not get a done sheet because somewhere in the lower income areas of Austin Texas there
1:11:38
is a spouse and there are probably St stepchild and I'm all for people bettering themselves but obey the law
1:11:45
and come in Legally okay because on the school board for quite
1:11:52
some time now I can tell you that it cost your school districts tons more in money do have a follow
1:11:59
up any follow up on that let's take it one step further then
1:12:06
okay in your opinion at what point does Texas have standing in charge of the federal government has abrogated one of
1:12:12
its core constitutional responsibilities by failing to secure the the southern border and at what point can or should
1:12:18
the citizens of Texas tell the federal government to butt out and assume responsibility for the border between
1:12:23
Texas and Mexico I'm not a constitutional lawyer so I do not know at what point we could do that
1:12:29
without federal agents showing up and arresting our good people uh that would be again an outrage but uh if the states
1:12:36
can figure out a way to do it I would happily applaud it because the flood gates must be closed we must uh we must
1:12:42
preserve our sovereignty I loved Ronald Reagan but I disagreed profoundly in 1986 when he gave amnesty to millions of
1:12:49
people who had not come in Legally I was at an event recently just about 10 days ago and I openly applauded a young
1:12:56
couple that had come from Mexico and they had done it legally and they had just become citizens I applaud obeying
1:13:01
the law I'm offended when it's
1:13:10
not new question and this is from one of the registrants uh Mr Le please you've
1:13:18
made references about your faith and and things of that nature so the question is
1:13:23
what is your concept of religious Liberty and the so-called separation of church and state I think it's important
1:13:30
to understand the separation of church and state first of all uh that's not something you find in the Constitution
1:13:36
if you visit with people across this nation they think it's somewhere eded in it it's not it never came about until
1:13:42
1946 in any type of official document Hugo Black put it in a supreme court um
1:13:48
thing the only thing that the constitution says is I can't tell you what religion if you go back and visit
1:13:53
with the F visit and to research on founding fathers you will find very
1:13:58
clear that religious Concepts the belief in God the understanding that our rights
1:14:05
come from God not from a government is embedded in the Constitution we just
1:14:11
need to go back to where the Constitution is and if we did that it would address these issues in a very
1:14:16
clear way you know we have tried to separate separate this church and the
1:14:21
state it was never the case you had a number of not only strong religious people that were involved in the
1:14:27
founding of our country they were evangelicals and we need to go back and understand that situation and if you do
1:14:34
that then all of a sudden you get a grounding of what our country is all
1:14:44
about good question um Mr Addison please um advise and
1:14:51
consent the US Constitution says that would be a major portion of your role if you are
1:14:58
elected to the US Senate for us please explain advise and
1:15:04
consent well when I hear you ask that question what comes to my mind are
1:15:10
treaties okay especially which uh at least that's what comes to my mind that may where you want me to go but that's
1:15:15
what comes to my mind and and I will tell you this is where I'm an you go wherever you want to take thank you very much but I will tell you that uh as an
1:15:23
independent thinker I'm all for fair trade I have a real problem with some of these free trade treaties because in my
1:15:29
opinion we've been freely shipping jobs overseas okay that I highly offended when our
1:15:38
representatives and Senators especially Senators since they vote on the treaties have given priority to treaties with
1:15:45
regard to trade that do not benefit uh American citizens you asked Mr Cruz
1:15:50
while ago a question about Black Americans I want to tell you what black Americans need is jobs they have a highest unemployment in the nation and
1:15:56
I've got plans to increase that as a businessman my mind works this way okay when I was 8 years old I was selling
1:16:02
eggs and Oprah okay and so the government's been in my way for 42
1:16:10
[Applause] years
1:16:19
follow follow
1:16:25
all right we'll go with a new
1:16:32
question the federal government has grown so far beyond its constitutional mandate that it's it's breathtaking to
1:16:38
comprehend what will be your legislative solution for this overweening overlarge
1:16:44
over powerful cancer on American society well thank you for that question my
1:16:50
first on legislative is every piece of legislation that comes forward must show
1:16:55
the Constitutional value it's based in and it has to be clearcut and I think they should be able to cite a number of
1:17:01
cases throughout history on the federal level to prove it and on top of that I
1:17:06
agree with Glenn I'm going to be your repeal Queen um any piece of legislation
1:17:12
that proposes a new government program I promise you I will fill a buster it there's no need for any new
1:17:20
government programs every single one and I will continue to propose legislation
1:17:26
to repeal especially a vast number of the executive orders that have been radically abused and have been used to
1:17:32
create this fourth arm of government that we call our bureaucracy I would also propose legislation that the
1:17:37
president is not allowed to appoint anyone except for maybe his chief of staff and his secretary without the
1:17:44
advise and consent of the Senate that means no more
1:17:49
[Applause] Zars and of course I could go on and on
1:17:55
do we have a followup to that I'm going to ask you to of all the federal department agencies and departments
1:18:00
which in your mind should we eliminate immediately the largest right now aside from the Department of Defense is Health
1:18:06
and Human Services I think your health and the services to You Belong to You Most personally it can
1:18:15
[Applause] go it's a back amount of spending we've got Medicare and Medicaid wrapped up in
1:18:21
it I believe each individual State needs to be the on to allocate that determine citizenship and minimize fraud it's a
1:18:28
serious problem when IBM's CEO goes to our president and says we can dramatically reduce the fraud waste
1:18:34
abuse and Medicare and the president said no I'm sure he didn't say thank you that's not really his style but no and
1:18:41
that is overboard out of control so Health and Human Services would be a good place to start
1:18:48
Jonathan okay any other followup all right new question
1:18:54
a new question for Mr Cruz um on July 22nd President Obama along with other
1:19:02
military officials certify that the US military is ready to Institute the
1:19:07
repeal of the don't ask don't tail policy would like to hear your views on the policy itself and ask if you support
1:19:14
the repeal of don't ask don't tell yes I support the
1:19:22
well I oppose President Obama you enough negatives in there I oppose President
1:19:28
Obama's view on don't ask don't tell I support the policy and look with respect to the military I defer to our generals
1:19:36
and leaders of the Armed Forces and our generals have
1:19:43
consistently told us that repealing don't ask don't tell Will under undermine morale and Military
1:19:49
Effectiveness and you're noticing a pattern over and over again don't just
1:19:55
take my word for this I have a record as the solicitor general of Texas I led a coalition of states in front of the US
1:20:02
Supreme Court in defense of the federal Solomon Amendment which was a law that
1:20:08
defended don't ask don't tell and prohibited universities from barring military recruiters to come on campus
1:20:15
because they disapproved of don't ask don't tell and I stood up and te took the lead to defend that policy because
1:20:23
it was the right thing to do
1:20:29
quick followup from Mr Cruz you said I'm consistently going to follow what the generals say what if the military
1:20:35
generals at some point say we're in favor of repealing the Don assel policy
1:20:41
would that affect your view on the mission look it would certainly affect my view because I don't think you could
1:20:47
effectively micromanage what goes to military effectivess now I don't think the military should be used as a
1:20:54
Vanguard for social change which is what this fight is really
1:21:00
about when Bill Clinton first came into office it was the one of the very first thing he did and he did it because he
1:21:06
was trying to pursue a domestic agenda that is that is embodied in the gay
1:21:13
marriage agenda that is embodied in the Obama administration's shameful refusal
1:21:18
to defend the defensive Marriage Act in court
1:21:24
[Applause] okay new question new question for Mr
1:21:29
leard please and this is submitted by a an attendee a regant and a supporter of
1:21:36
raging elephants. org and I'm going to have to read this
1:21:45
one when Mr Smith went to Washington he was willing to filibuster
1:21:52
a bill that was in his opinion wrong what would have to be in a bill
1:21:59
that would trigger within you the same passion that Jimmy Stewart
1:22:06
demonstrated um if anybody knows me either having LED organizations on the
1:22:12
private side or leading a city they know that I lack for not there's no no time
1:22:17
that I lack for passion if I get involved in an issue there is a lot of passion behind it um I can tell you that
1:22:25
the and again it's such a wide question and I'll try to take a take a shot um
1:22:30
clearly if I think that there is something that undermines the constitution one um two as I said
1:22:38
earlier if there's bills ideas that come forward that increase the intrusion of
1:22:46
Washington on small businesses and families enormous passion on that three
1:22:52
policies that hurt our econom that destroy jobs that are the reverse of of of allowing the private sector to
1:22:59
to to create jobs so I think that gives you a feel the last one that I'll put which is kind of embodying in the first
1:23:05
one that it's the value side too I I am a strong proponent that exceptionalism
1:23:11
uh is something that is special for this country that we do have an obligation to
1:23:16
be the strongest in the world both militarily and economically and that we should unabashedly seek to have our
1:23:23
country be number one in the world
1:23:30
yes um I appreciate the question that was that was put out there can could we talk a little bit just getting off
1:23:37
expanding the question a little bit about filibustering itself you know back in the day like Mr Smith went to
1:23:43
Washington if he opposed A bill he had to literally stand up there and read the phone book or whatever and R clack out
1:23:50
now it's a matter of how many numbers you actually have sitting in the chamber in the ever chamber of the Senate uh
1:23:56
that allows a bill to come to the floor in the days of the Civil Rights we know uh the story of the late Senator bird
1:24:02
that Philip Buster as a Democrat against the Civil Rights Amendment what are your thoughts about going back to that old
1:24:09
style of Philip bustering where in fact if you have some passion against legislation that's being introduced on
1:24:16
the floor that you stand up and you are forced to express that that emotion your
1:24:21
opposition vly orally or read the phone book or whatever what are your thoughts about the rules of the Senate as it is
1:24:27
now I love the idea that you have to actually put your actions where your mouth is um so that all of a sudden
1:24:34
there is a cost to taking a stand I think that is great so I love that issue I I can tell you that's something that
1:24:40
I've done before uh that city of Dallas we had an issue come forward which was just a wrong issue it had to do with
1:24:47
taking a bunch of contracts and not bidding them out but giving to some people um when I took that issue up I
1:24:53
was down 14 to one I ended up winning it and I ended up winning it by taking the
1:24:58
issue to the people and engaging them and having them understand it so I think part of it is not only the issue of on
1:25:05
the floor a filibustering but being aggressive enough to take issues to the people and
1:25:10
engage them I've said often that the the first bill that I would ever put forward
1:25:15
is a bill that says you're going to restructure Congress and I think the way that you do that is simply by saying
1:25:21
that benefits healthc care um uh pensions Etc can be no better than the
1:25:26
midpoint of the private sector and if somebody's elected to congress they can't Lobby on anything associate
1:25:32
federally for 10 years to try to again get them out of follow
1:25:40
follow all right big question okay Mr Addison and
1:25:48
let's that thing a little bit because there's a there's a there's a there's a
1:25:54
I think there's um a lack of U Republican's ability to message
1:26:02
very well we don't message very well so let me ask this question this way um the Constitution says that all bills for
1:26:08
raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives the 16th Amendment says Congress of the power to land collect taxes on incomes Article 1
1:26:15
Section 8 gives Congress the authority to make all OD necessary and proper for executing its powers in other words to
1:26:21
spend money so my point of course is that of the three branches of Congress of government Congress taxes and
1:26:27
Congress spends um we tend to talk about
1:26:32
presidential budgets and presidential administrations as being responsible for the state of the economy when in fact he
1:26:39
can sign or not sign and that's about the size of it right so Democrats have controlled both houses both houses of
1:26:45
Congress for 44 of the last 55 years based on
1:26:51
that if you're elected how will you help Americans understand which party is
1:26:56
responsible for the state we're in what was the last part of the
1:27:02
question if you're elected as a Republican and talking about messaging
1:27:08
how will you help Americans understand which part is responsible for the state we are in well I will tell you that I
1:27:15
think that it's U proper that one should ask forgiveness to to say that you have
1:27:22
never made any mistakes I think is and as a Christian I'm so thankful for forgiveness that song Amazing Grace was
1:27:28
written for me but with regard to what has been happening it's uncontable what both parties have been doing for the
1:27:34
last many years and it is because of I believe career politicians you know I wish I could have been asked about term
1:27:39
minut I but but I think that that's it also gets back to the filibuster and that is
1:27:46
where you'll recall in that 1939 movie which was before the days of Television
1:27:51
that the ears of the American people were right there by their because they were listening to what Senator Smith was up to and the people
1:27:58
were with him because he was fighting corruption he was calling attention to the problems that existed in that body
1:28:04
now I you may think this is funny but I have literally been Engineering in my mind a device that would help me if I
1:28:09
were to collapse or begin to collapse to to be held up through a stainless steel frame that comes up through my pants and
1:28:15
underneath my leg to stand as long as it takes to call attention to what's happening but it must be done through
1:28:21
communication and that is where one person in the United States State Senate has a profound influence on National
1:28:26
policy [Applause] follow all right we go to a new question
1:28:33
now new question Miss pittinger we're well aware of the role
1:28:39
that US Senate plays in confirming nominees to the Supreme Court
1:28:45
United States Supreme Court which US Supreme Court Justice current or past
1:28:52
would you say that you identify with in regarding their view of the Constitution
1:28:57
and how it's interpret oh gosh there's some very interesting
1:29:02
people there and I mean right now I really love Scalia I mean talk about a
1:29:08
man after my own heart I think he's amazing I don't agree with him all the time and even when he the logic he uses
1:29:16
to come to his decision I may agree with the decision in the end but I may not agree with the steps he got to but right
1:29:22
now really him um I think he's had to stand in a way and in a time that
1:29:27
previous justices may not even be able to comprehend I really respect what he's
1:29:33
done and I look forward to the day when there's an equally passionate conservative woman there to help him
1:29:40
[Applause] along just to follow up Miss Pinger um
1:29:45
what specifically about Scalia could you elaborate on as far as a case or what
1:29:51
right that he's a strict constitutionalist from top to bottom I love the story of talking about the
1:29:56
American flag and whether or not people could burn it and he believed in he freedom of speech and he believe
1:30:02
believed in it very literally and so he ruled in a way that he hated but he believed was the most literal interpretation of the Constitution and
1:30:09
the next day it was all over the news and he's in there drinking his coffee and he just feels this huge weight on
1:30:14
him about it and his wife walks in and starts singing the National Anthem he's had to carry weight even
1:30:22
with people that he loves who may agree with the def final decision he's made and I really respect
1:30:28
that all right
1:30:34
question Jo Cruz U let's talk monetary
1:30:40
policy really simple if you could for those of us who don't have a strong grasp on monetary policy could you
1:30:46
please tell us the role of the Federal Reserve
1:30:54
I am glad to and I will say at the outset that if I'm fortunate enough to be elected to the Senate I intend to be
1:31:02
a co-sponsor of Ron Paul's audit fed
1:31:11
pill the Federal Reserve has its origins in progressivism and it has its origins
1:31:17
in dramatically expanding the control of unelected Elites over our monetary system and over our money base
1:31:24
I am deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability of the Federal Reserve and in particular I am
1:31:31
concerned about the policies pursued recently uh youth mystically called
1:31:36
quantitative easing but in the English language called printing
1:31:43
money when the federal government prints money and prints money it is the crest
1:31:48
tax imaginable because it makes everyone's incomes everyone's assets everyone's homes everyone's property and
1:31:55
savings they've worked a lifetime to accumulate to provide for their family it undermines the value of all of it and
1:32:03
I think we should fight against undermining our currency which the Federal Reserve has been doing every b
1:32:08
as vigorously as we fight against out of control federal government spending and
1:32:18
Taxation could you share with us your thoughts uh if if if we can go beyond
1:32:24
editing uh auditing the Federal Reserve uh hopefully ending the Federal Reserve
1:32:30
could you share with us your thoughts about uh recoupling our currency to uh
1:32:37
precious metal namely gold um would you also um be in favor of uh opening up the
1:32:46
uh Gates of Fort Knox and see if the goal is actually still
1:32:51
there there those of us who thinking been spent could you just share your heart
1:32:57
with this on that on number two absolute uh on number
1:33:04
one that's an issue frankly that that I want to hear more expert advice on uh I
1:33:10
am sympathetic to the arguments of returning to the gold standard but at the same time I want to consider
1:33:15
carefully the effect of that in a Global Currency what I am not sympathetic to is
1:33:21
the arguments for a weak and undermined and so whatever it takes to ensure we
1:33:27
have a strong dollar that is not undermined through inflation that is not undermined through printing too much
1:33:32
money that is not undermined in a way that it becomes an excuse what this is all about is politicians like to spend
1:33:39
our money and it's an Avenue for them to do so and so if returning to the gold standard is the only effective way to
1:33:46
ensure sound money then I would support it but regardless we need to ensure a sound and stable dollar that doesn't
1:33:53
undermine all of our
1:33:58
sa yeah just one just one more because we we really haven't touched monetary fiscal policy and it's something that
1:34:04
you guys are going to if elected are going to have a profound impact upon um
1:34:10
the rights of individual states to um
1:34:16
have their own gold reserves uh there are those of us here in the state of Texas that believe that
1:34:22
uh we should have our own reserves with the potential of being able to use it as legal tender uh just in case America
1:34:29
just happens to go Belly Up And while we got left is
1:34:35
Texas once again just based on um my Looney comment what are your
1:34:41
thoughts you know I have to admit the first thing I thought of is in my office on the wall I have an original $50 bill
1:34:50
$20 bill $10 bill and $5 bill that was legal tender in the Republic of Texas
1:34:56
when we were our our own nation and I more than once thought if we continue
1:35:01
down the road President Obama has us on I may well need to break that over at least I've got
1:35:12
$85 all right we go to a new question now Mr Le could you please tell us what
1:35:18
you think the United States energy policy should be sure uh it should be
1:35:23
common sense that's where we need to go unfortunately what what's happened is we
1:35:30
have walked away from any sense of Common Sense on energy this isn't a question of coming up with thousands of
1:35:37
pages of new policies and those sorts of things it's simply leveraging off the existing reserves that we have and
1:35:44
exploiting those we have enormous reserves of oil that right now the EPA
1:35:49
and a number of other agencies in Alaska and in Texas are standing in in front of well we continue to import 52 million
1:35:56
barrels a day from nicely put people that don't want like this and want to do us harm in addition to that we have
1:36:02
enormous reserves of natural gas 30 40 years ago we thought maybe it was 50 years now you will see estimates that go
1:36:09
up towards 400 years more of those are probably in the in the 100 years what we need to do is simply utilize those
1:36:15
reserves if we do and in a very short period of time we could break the back
1:36:21
of the oil that we import from the Middle East that 5.5 million you can take it down by a million a million and
1:36:27
a half anybody that knows commodity markets would understand that you broken down so use common sense leverage off
1:36:32
the reserves and importantly the last part utilize Market forces I'm happy to
1:36:38
see any energy sourc to utiliz but has to stand on its own economic
1:36:49
value can follow up on that next question good question Mr Addison
1:36:57
um what we have found out over the years is that Planned Parenthood has been
1:37:04
receiving Millions hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars even though we have
1:37:10
policy in place that that those tax dollars are not supposed to be used for elective abortions and they say they
1:37:17
provide other services and so they've been able to get at this money um my question to to you
1:37:24
is number one do you support any tax dollars being given to plan Parenthood
1:37:31
for any reason and and if you do or don't or if you don't what would you do
1:37:37
to make that happen or to put that policy in place I absolutely would not favor one dying to them and the way I've
1:37:45
mentioned a few of these things in previous minutes but the only way that we can truly defeat those types of
1:37:51
issues is to decentralize Washington if we uh give the powers back to the states
1:37:58
with all of these issues that deal with health and and other issues that that plan par is allegedly involved in then
1:38:05
the state the federal government will no longer be cutting checks to planned parthood the states will have the right
1:38:10
to make those decisions and then again in Texas if our legislators were to
1:38:15
decide to send any money to them I do believe that the people would rise up and throw the Rascals out U and so
1:38:22
absolutely they must not given any money if it must be ways must be figured out to stop it from happening and I think
1:38:28
the way to do that is to transfer the powers back to the state and get this massive government uh neutered if you
1:38:43
will just a followup question is there anything that you could share with us
1:38:48
that you've been involved in personally on the pro lifee issue to either stop
1:38:53
this type of funding or to be involved in other actions to support uh life of unborn
1:39:01
children well I have stood many times with my friends down the street at in magn right down the street for my
1:39:07
funeral home at St Mias Catholic church every year they have a chain for life
1:39:12
and they hold up signs talking about the sanctity of life and how abortion is is the taking of an unborn life and so I
1:39:20
have stood and applauded them and appreciate their examp example of standing up for something that must be
1:39:25
stopped uh I have also um made donations to uh the various organizations that do
1:39:33
promote life uh outside of that I have not been to Austin or to Washington but
1:39:39
I've stood with local people and done those
1:39:47
things time for one more question and uh then we'll move into the
1:39:53
uh closing statement Leela May yes
1:39:59
Flor what should America's depth of participation be within the United
1:40:05
Nations wow let me let me really gather all my strength when they say this
1:40:14
none quite frankly and I'm going to steal this from plan but I'm going to give him credit quite frankly when we
1:40:20
invite people who spy on us hate us and violate every one of our laws and rules
1:40:25
when they're here we are begging for trouble enough no more money no more
1:40:30
money to the international monetary fund which really becomes the international Bankers fund no more of our troops
1:40:38
serving in wars that quite frankly have continued to put in regimes that look to
1:40:43
supplant the United States enough enough if it's leading from behind you believe
1:40:50
in a cause so much you want to be at the back of the line defend it I will not vote to send our men and women abroad
1:40:57
unless I Believe In A Cause enough that I would join up stand on the front line and take the first
1:41:03
[Applause] bullet that answer your
1:41:11
question yes ma'am and I'm a pretty good shot
1:41:18
too a of a followup Miss piger could you name specifically one or or more Wars
1:41:24
that you now or in the past that you would you have or would object to or
1:41:29
you'd say we shouldn't be involved well some of us would say we are in five Wars right now but Congress actually has to declare war for it to be considered a
1:41:36
war uh I I think they call it but a kinetic Skirmish what you know I don't know whatever ridiculous words they make
1:41:42
up but that's what happens when you have an entire party of attorneys they make up new ways to say real things um so I
1:41:49
would say actually out of Iraq we've mission accomplished we wanted to remove Saddam Hussein it's time for us to come
1:41:55
home we are trying to rebuild a nation that right now is not interested in doing anything but fraudulently spend
1:42:01
our money and I'm sorry for the people who live there but they've got to change their government we haven't been able to
1:42:06
do it effectively corruption is deep within and we're not changing we can get out of Iraq Afghanistan we can get out
1:42:12
of Libya quite frankly we need to take all of our troops home they they deserve to do with their
1:42:21
families the the argument the the argument is often put out there when you look at the tragedies that
1:42:28
befall people especially in poverty stricken countries yes um that America
1:42:34
has the ability to assist somehow when you see the tragedy that's going on in Somalia you see what's happening in the
1:42:40
Sudan yes um if America or just just you know you
1:42:48
see current Senators voicing an opinion and flexing
1:42:53
muscle to do what they believe needs to be done to help those that would that would argue is the least amongst us on
1:43:00
the globe right if you have these very real situations what would be your solution
1:43:06
to try and help them I would send Educators because quite frankly giving them bullets to kill each other hasn't
1:43:12
changed anything and as Jean Kurt Patrick said when Jimmy Carter just finished with not dealing with Iran a
1:43:19
democracy cannot exist amongst an illiterate people we have to you want to send teachers you
1:43:26
want to send missionaries to bring people to realizations about what's in their heart and what's in the heart of those governing them I am all for that
1:43:33
and I'm going to support that with my own individual dollar I don't believe we should use taxpayer dollars to do those
1:43:38
things but if you want to send teachers you want to send missionaries you will not change the hearts and minds of those
1:43:44
who are governing and those who vote for them by just giving them bullets it will not change we have to send those in and
1:43:52
while I do believe believe that what's going on is evil in most of these countries and what's called Arab Spring is more like Muslim Brotherhood move on
1:43:59
in quite frankly we've continually and sadly supplanted one government in a
1:44:05
nation and it to be replaced with one who hates us more we don't have the best track record right now I think we need
1:44:10
to pray for Nations and send
1:44:16
Educators okay that's the end of that round let's go to uh our closing
1:44:22
statements and the first closing statement will come from Ted
1:44:27
Cruz well thank you very much everyone for coming and spending the time to be be here and for investing your time and
1:44:34
energy in this race and making a difference in our nation I suspect I'm not the only person
1:44:40
in this room that's been burned by a politician that's seen politicians who
1:44:47
sound really good on the stomach and then they become spineless jellyfish when they get into office
1:44:54
we all know the old parable of the frog and the Scorpion and the scorpion stings
1:44:59
the Frog because it is his nature sadly it is the nature of political candidates
1:45:06
to say whatever it takes to try to get your vote which is why over and over again
1:45:14
every answer to every question that was asked tonight I didn't say take my word for it
1:45:21
I said look to my record if you want to know where my heart is if you want to know if I care about these principles
1:45:27
look to if I've been standing and fighting for the principles over and over and over again and I want yourself
1:45:33
to ask ask yourself on question after question whether it was life whether it was protecting the Border whether it was
1:45:39
standing up for religious Liberties whether it was defending us sovereignty whether you heard answers
1:45:46
that pointed to a record of standing and fighting and the reason I focus on it is two things number one you want to know
1:45:53
if someone has the backbone and courage to do it and if they haven't done it in the past we shouldn't expect them to
1:45:59
grow the backbone in office and number two you want to know if they can do it effectively in terms of my heart my dad
1:46:06
when I was a kid fleeing oppression over and over again said when we faced
1:46:11
oppression in Cuba I had a place to flee to if we lose our freedom here where do
1:46:17
we go there's no question that better explains why I'm running for office than
1:46:22
that question right there I ask for your support I need your support I look forward to fighting arm in- arm and by
1:46:29
your side thank [Applause]
1:46:36
you Tom leard uh thank you all for being here and thanks for the privilege uh for
1:46:42
me to be with you appreciate the opportunity um as you think about
1:46:47
electing a new Senator I think there's two important aspects one where they came from and at
1:46:53
the court hopefully you got a sense of that I was raised by a single mom who ended up having an awful lot of problems
1:46:59
that been given to her by my dad I can tell you that nobody will ever teach me anything about the working class I saw
1:47:05
it my mom and I saw her work hard not only to put food on the table but to create a generation an opportunity for
1:47:12
me that was better than hers we have gotten to the point where everything comes down 7c sound bites how good we
1:47:20
make speeches and how the Applause lines are what we've seen over the last two years
1:47:26
good speeches and never having LED anything is not a very good recipe for our
1:47:32
nation we need to have people that again don't talk about things that have not
1:47:37
been in staff positions but have actually had to be leaders actually had to make the decisions and step
1:47:43
forward our economy is at the precip us right now we are on the verge of losing
1:47:49
everything that we built over the course of 235 years people talk about spending they've got
1:47:55
it down to the paragraph ask if they've actually cut spending public and
1:48:01
private today we've got a stagnant economy we're not creating jobs ask if
1:48:07
people have actually created jobs I cannot theoretically talk about the private
1:48:12
Enterprise but have they been in it have they been accountable and have they
1:48:17
produce results those are the tough decisions that have to be made thank you very much for
1:48:26
[Applause] Glen Addison this afternoon you've seen a
1:48:33
small sampling of some of my thoughts on my website are a lot of details details about issues details
1:48:40
about how I have spent my 50 years on this Earth and although I have not stood before the highest court in the land I
1:48:48
along with many of you have been on my knees before our heavenly father asking him to forgive our nation for turning
1:48:54
its back toward him ladies and gentlemen I believe that many of our problems can be solved if we would look back to the
1:49:00
founders and the foundational truths that they gave us back in the 1700s I believe the Lord's put a burden
1:49:07
on my heart because one person in the United States Senate can have a profound influence and difference on National
1:49:13
policy in Leviticus chapter 14 God gave the Jews Specific Instructions about
1:49:19
what to do if mildew infested their houses and if the infestation was significant
1:49:25
enough they were to dismantle the entire structure ladies and gentlemen we have a
1:49:31
major infestation of disease in the power structure of Washington
1:49:39
[Applause] DC the 10th Amendment is in shreds
1:49:45
article one section one of the Constitution which says that legislative Authority belongs to the Congress is a
1:49:51
joke as evidenced by by daily dictates from the EPA and other agencies those
1:49:56
agencies must be dismantled and their duties must be return to the
1:50:04
states absolutely their duties return to the States you know whether it's a
1:50:09
lizard in Lano or a dam in Dallas those decisions should be made by Texans and
1:50:15
by bureaucrats and so that's what a senator Addison be about I ask for your support
1:50:27
[Applause] I love that everyone talks about the founders but we forget the million who
1:50:34
served in ways that no one knows their name John Adams would be a law only
1:50:39
known in history as a lawyer who hung by his neck for treason if it weren't in front of the men and women in the ground
1:50:46
forces of the American Military as it was the Continental Army those people who lived their days and lives lives
1:50:53
completely unknown their names we will not remember he would never be the man
1:50:58
that we remember him as if the people who were having to live it out and sock it out in the trenches didn't do their
1:51:04
part as well those incredibly brilliant businessmen who were some of the
1:51:10
founders of our nation wonderful men we would remember them and be singing God Sav the queen as traitors to the queen
1:51:18
or the king I should say I love the variety that we have in this
1:51:25
country but we are missing it in the Senate we have 60 attorneys out of 100
1:51:31
Senators we have 17 women only five are Republican only one is conservative only
1:51:37
one is pro life half of Congress is millionaires only 1% of this country is millionaires
1:51:45
they don't have a problem raising money and growing business for themselves they have a problem spending your money
1:51:51
instead I think it's time that we get citizen candidates I think it's time that we get people who have a variety of
1:51:57
experiences I have a bachelor's in English which means I can read the legislation they put in front of me and
1:52:03
I have a master's in dispute resolution and conflict management because by God we need that even in this party right
1:52:10
now if we don't get on the same page we can have the same Senate same house and same president and get the same amount
1:52:17
of diddly done that we got done about 10 years ago it's time for citizen candidates it's time for people who may
1:52:24
not have the glory of fighting out there in the beginning but have been living it day in day out and have lived the
1:52:29
consequences of those people who have stood up and made great speeches and poor legislative decisions thank you
1:52:36
very
1:52:42
much what a fantastic job these candidates have done for us let's give them one more round of applause
1:52:50
[Applause]
1:53:01
CER
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