influential interviewers on the "after words" podcast and q and a, here wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors and others who are making things happen. book notes plus episodes, hour-long conversation that regularly feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. the about books podcast takes you behind-the-scenes of the nonfiction book publishing industry with insider interviews, industry and bestsellers lists. all of our podcasts, by downloading the free c-span now apps or wherever you get your podcasts on on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> if you are enjoying american history tv sign a frown newsletter using the qr code on screen to receive the weekly schedule of upcoming programs like lectures in history, the presidency, and more. sign up for the american history tv newsletter today and watch american history tv every saturday or anytime online,

c-span.org/history. >> president a candidate and governor ron desantis spoke at out campaign kickoff event in iowa, the florida republican's first campaign event since announcing his candidacy in twitter space conversation. he is introduced by local gop leaders and iowa governor kim reynolds. governor desantis's wife casey spoke briefly. >> good evening. my name is adam greg and i'm honored to serve as your lieutenant governor in the great state of iowa. [applause] >> i want to say thank you to each of you for coming out here to welcome florida governor ron desantis back to our great

state. [applause] >> most importantly i want to say thank you to each of you for participating in the caucus process. the caucuses themselves will probably happen on a cold and blustery night early next year but the process has already started in rooms just like this where we have the opportunity to hear from people seeking to lead our great country and to hear their vision for our nation and to look them in the eye and shake their hand and ask a question. through this process, we will begin to take our country back. [applause] >> what a privilege and what an opportunity we have. thank you for doing your part. now let's take a moment to say thank you to our very gracious host. i can think of no better way of saying thank you van to give a warm round of applause to

pastor jesse newman. [applause] >> america's greatest days are still ahead of us, amen. let's pray together. god, we believe that our best days are not in the past, that america's best days are still in front of us and keep raising up mighty conservative voices, bold voices, godly voices in our land. i pray you start to wake churches up, wake pastors up, wake men and women of god up to the need to get up and speak the truth. ..

may we see a day soon where america stands tall among all the nation's as a place that honors the lord, that does the right thing even when it's hard. lord, we pray for the governor. we pray your blessings. we pray your blessings to marriage and children. we pray to whiston and the courage to do what wisdom tells him not just to know what's right but to do what's right. i pray he would fight for godly virtues and godly values. i pray that as the fight gets intense i pray for your protection over the governor kemp over his marriage come over his family. as he stands for righteousness and as a vicious onslaught of those who plan to do wicked come

against them i pray to have no effect on him or his family or his campaign or his desire to stand up for the truth. god, i pray that all that the enemy means for harm i believe you're going to use it for good. we pray this in the name of jesus, and somebody say amen? god bless you all. and right now it's my pleasure to introduce a good man of god, one of your state representatives. give it up for dan. [applause] >> thank you all for being you. please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

>> thank you. i know you guys are all here to see my second favorite government of the united states but it is my distinct honor to welcome to the stage my friend and it's been a great and be in the state legislature with such a great leader that our state has please welcome to the stage my friend your governor governor kim reynolds. [applause] >> i love the energy. i love it. this is going to make a difference. thank you, everybody. thank you for your service. it is so great to see so many faces in this crowd, so many politically engaged iowans, citizens who love the country, who worry about its future and will not rest until we take it

back. [applause] so i am so pleased and honored to have the opportunity tonight to introduce and welcome back to the great state of iowa a friend and fellow republican governor, republican ron desantis as well as his amazing life, first lady, casey desantis. so she is joined us this afternoon, too. when ron came to iowa in early march i kind of had a hunch i know what you do know it was just a hunch that he might be back. and here he is taking a coffee his campaign, his first stop as a candidate for the president come as president of the united states of america. [applause]

so when ron tells me that is going to be spending a lot of time. i think it only makes sense because apparently we have some iowa reporters who have taken up calling iowa the florida of the north you're sarong you'o feel right at home here in iowa. [applause] now, now i don't think he meant that as a compliment. because apparently the work that we've been doing in iowa and in florida hurts kind of their liberal sensibilities. i do want to you what, i absolutely take it as a compliment because in both iowa and in florida we are standing up for you. where stand up for your values, and most and poorly we are standing up for your freedom.

[applause] >> we could have never imagined, let's kill babies. we couldn't have imagined that we would be faced with a global pandemic where the response would be mandate vaccines keep schools churches and businesses shuttered and keep americans

lockdown in their homes for as long as possible. we are living in unprecedented times and it is so critical that we do everything we can to make sure that a republican take back the white house in 2024. [applause] so that protest am proud to say start right here in iowa with the first in nation caucus and most and poorly it starts with each and every one of you. so i want you to continue to be engaged. we want you to that the candidates so that we can make sure the person we select can undo the devastation that the biden administration has unleashed on this great country. to natural your from a candidate who shown us that he can and all you have to do is look at his record. you know, politicians we tend to talk a lot.

but only a few actually get things done. only if you have the resolve and the willingness to stand strong for us and that's who ron is at his court. he stood up against woke corporation of special interests. he made sure that parents have a seat at the table and protected children. [applause] and when he had the chance he proudly signed a law that makes it illegal to stop a babies beating heart. [applause] the same heartbeat bill that i was proud to sign into law in 2018. [applause]

before becoming the government of the sunshine state and i do think that ron might tell you it's the eye of the south east, i'm pretty sure so ron served in come he served in congress where he was a founding member of the freedom caucus who really spent a lot of time bucking the assumption to do is right for america. and before that he proudly served his country in the military. he's the father of three beautiful children and perhaps most important he is the husband of casey desantis. at if you don't already know, casey is a force in her own right. as first lady she is launched four major initiatives including a a wonderful program called hope florida where she really the state teams up with the private sector as well as state-based organizations to help single parents get back on their feet and off of welfare. a cancer survivor herself she is

also championed cancer research programs and continues to travel the state to educate and provide hope to others. and for all you mom's out there she's done that while raising three children. so i am so pleased that they are back in iowa and i have another hunch they are going to be here a lot. so because if i know anything about these two, it's that they will not be outworked. so please join me in welcoming to the stage ron and casey desantis. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, iowa.

it is great to be back and it's great for me to report that our great american come back starts by sending joe biden back to his basement in delaware. [applause] i mean, he spent so much of his time as president on vacation we might as well make it permanent. now it is great to be back. now a few weeks ago we were in state, we were not actually scheduled to come to the des moines area but before we went back to florida the weather was so nice we felt we just had to come back and pay everyone a little bit of a visit. we appreciated that. i want to thank pastor newman for hosting us here at eternity church. thank you so much. [applause] and thanks to your governor kim reynolds and all the legislators

in iowa who worked to support her agenda, they have done incredible work in safeguarding freedom in iowa, and cam mentioned you know that they get a lot done really bold people of said i'll is a florida of the north but i tell you at very well may be that florida is a iowa of the south east. iowa is setting the standard for y'all should be proud about what they are doing. now i wish the elites in washington, d.c. would take a page out of the iowa playbook but instead they have ignored what works and it continued to plunge this nation into the abyss. our country is going in the wrong direction. we can see at and we can feel it. our southern border has collapsed. the mexican drug cartels have

more control over what goes on at the border than her own united states government. millions of illegal aliens have poured into this country including criminal aliens and even individuals on the terrorist watch list. massive amounts of fentanyl that the cartels are bringing in has killed tens of thousands of our fellow americans. look at the economy. the biden administration is doing all they can to make it harder for the average family to make ends meet and to attain and maintain a middle-class lifestyle. the bill for the massive borrowing spending and debt and record printing of money by the fed that's falling on the american people. our dollar has lost almost 20% of its value in the last four years. look at energy. you would think with these economic problems with inflation you may want to tap into more domestic energy but no, biden is a liberally trying to kneecapped arc energy production and he's

tried to americans into electric vehicles which will make us more relied on china who provides most of the materials for the batteries. we have a bureaucracy that our founding fathers would find unrecognizable. it is an unaccountable weaponized administrative state that an evenly wields authority depending on its target. two different sets of rules depending on whether you are a member in good standing of elite society or not. if hunter were a a republicane would've been in jail years ago. [applause] american cities have been hollowed out by spiking crime due to weak ideologically driven policies that intentionally allow criminals to roam the streets. we've also witnessed a steady advance of a new form of leftism

that has inspected institutions across our nation to this form of cultural marxism sews divisions in our society and devalues merit and achievement. this woke ideology represents a war on truth itself. we had just endured years of attempts to impose medical authoritarianism on our country including president biden's attempt to deny americans the right to put food on the table and arnie living if they decline to take an mrna covid shot. [applause] lockdowns in the mandates have done incalculable damage to our country and the effects are still with us to this very day. and as we commemorated memorial day yesterday we are especially mindful of the 13 servicemembers who lost their lives in afghanistan due to joe biden's

dereliction of duty. [applause] these failed policies result from elites in the political class who ignore the concerns of the american people and who put their interests above our nation's interest. how is it that five of the seven wealthiest counties in the united states of america are suburbs of washington, d.c.? d.c. doesn't produce much of anything besides mountains of debt and loads of hot air. [applause] these elites are not enacting an agenda to represent us. they are imposing their agenda on us via the federal government, via corporate america and via our own

education system. all for their benefit at all to our detriment. but it does not have to be this way. americans the client is not inevitable. it is a choice, and we must choose a new direction for our country -- declined -- we must choose a path that will lead to a revival of american greatness. [applause] we must restore sanity to our nation. we need fiscal and economic sanity. stop pricing hard-working americans out of a good standard of living through barro print and spend policies. embrace american produced energy so they can be completely energy independent. [applause] we now see washington has no cooked up their latest quote

debt deal, and i can tell you this. our nation was careening towards bankruptcy before the debt deal and it will still be careening towards bankruptcy after this debt deal. this is green lighting $4 trillion into debt in less than two years. it took us almost 200 years to get to 4 trillion in debt in the first place. it locks in inflated covid level era levels of spending and it keeps 98% of the 87,000 new irs agents that joe biden instituted. this is not going to solve our nation's fiscal problems. i can tell you in florida we run budget surpluses. we have a $1.2 trillion gdp in florida. we would be the 13th largest economy in the world if we were a separate country and yet with 1.2 trillion economy our state that is only $17 billion, second

lowest per capita state debt anywhere in these united states. and so it can be done. you just have to be willing to make choices, and stop passing the buck to subsequent generations to clean up your mess. [applause] now, restoring sanity means we can't have every major institution in our country going on ideological joyrides here we have to be guided by reality, i facts and by our enduring principles. merit must trump identity politics. [applause] and no american should have to compete in the woke olympics just to get a job or just to get into school. [applause]

we also must return to normalcy to our communities. we are a sovereign and our borders must be respected. we cannot have foreigners pouring into our country illegally by the millions and we cannot allow drug cartels to poison our population with fentanyl. [applause] law and order must be maintained, especially in american cities. we cannot permit the inmates run the asylum. we must reject soros backed prosecutors who refuse to enforce the law, and we must always support the minute limit of law enforcement who work hard to keep us safe. [applause]

we also must reestablish integrity in our institutions and that includes our military. i a navy veteran. i am proud to have served. [applause] proud to have done a tour in iraq and it was something that i had a lot of opportunities. i was a blue-collar kid growing up. my mom was a nurse. my father worked for nielsen television ratings went up with the tv boxes on the nielsen founded back in the day. i was given nothing. i had to earn what i got. i mean i worked minimum wage jobs just get through school. what i was able to put myself in a position to have a lot of opportunities. i could've made a lot of money but this was after 9/11. i felt that people should serve

and so i volunteered to do that and you know you look back at the loss of potential income but wearing the cloth of your country and serving in an honorable institution that's worth more than anything money can buy. [applause] and i know so many people feel that way throughout the years, and it pains me when we see revered institutions like our very own military become more concerned with matters that are not central to the mission, whether it's global warming or gender ideology or pronouns. morale is declining and recruiting is suffering. we need to eliminate these distractions and we need to get focused on the core mission at hand. [applause]

we also can't have true constitutional government if the most important issues in our society are decided not by our elected representatives but i some nameless, faceless bureaucrat working in washington, d.c. reestablishing integrity to our institutions means we must reinvigorate our constitutional system by returning the government to its rightful owners, we the people. [applause] there should be no social or economic transformation without representation. we must reassert truth as the foundation of our society. common sense can no longer be an uncommon virtue in our society and i'll tell you in florida we proved that all this can be

done. we chose faxed over fear. we chose education over indoctrination. we chose law and order overriding and disorder. [applause] we in the state of florida held the line when freedom hung in the balance. we refuse to allow our state to descend into some type of fauci and dystopia where people's livelihoods were destroyed and the freedoms were curtailed. no, we protected people's rights and like governor kim reynolds we ensured our kids have the right to be in school in person. [applause] in florida we chose freedom over fauci as him and we are better for doing that. -- fauci as him. [applause] now, we can look back at that

and say of course wouldn't you want to do that? but at the time we faced relentless opposition. we face opposition from media come from the left, from bureaucrats even from some of our fellow republicans. people told me governor what you are doing your cutting against the grain you are getting hammered you are not going to be long for this world politically if you keep doing what you are doing. but you know leadership is about doing what's right even in the face of intense criticism even when people are coming at you. [applause] you got to be willing to stand all by yourself if that's what it calls for and i told myself you know my job as a leader is to put the interest and the jobs of the people i represent ahead of protecting my own political hide. i did know what was going to happen politically but i was willing to let the chips fall where it may and as long as i can look in that mirror and no, i did the right thing for the right reasons i figured it would all work out in the end, and

sure enough we had some tough going politically for a while. we're getting hammered and lo and behold when you do the right thing regardless of polls are regardless of wherever s blowing, people appreciate you. they know when you stood up for them when it's not easy and you do it. that's when they go to war for you. [applause] at the end of the day leadership is not about entertainment. it's not about building a brand. it's not about virtue signaling. it is about results. and in florida we didn't lead with merely words here we followed up our words with deeds and we have produced a record of accomplishments that we would put up against anybody in this country. we have in florida bard land purchases like farmland by the ccp and related entities. not happening in florida.

[applause] we have signed legislation to kneecap so-called esg in the state of florida. [applause] note esg in our pension system. no social credit scores and no woke banking that discriminates against conservatives. [applause] we sign the heartbeat bill the strongest pro-life protections in modern florida history. [applause] we enacted record-breaking actually including look, we don't have a state income tax. i know kim is try to get there. you guys should try. it works very well. and we are proud of not having that so we have to find other ways to get people relief and so part of this package is a bunch of family-friendly provisions now in the state of florida

permanently no sales tax on any items involving raising babies. no diaper tax, no wipes, chris, strollers, clothes, you name it, tax-free. [applause] we have enacted universal school choice in florida. the money will follow the students and the parents can find the school of their choice. [applause] when i became governor we inherited maybe the most liberal state supreme court anywhere in the country where i've since been appointed seven conservative justices and we now have the most conservative state supreme court in the country. [applause] >> we have fortified second amendment right by an acting constitutional carry legislation. [applause] we sign tough on crime policies

including strong male requirements, tough penalties for fentanyl dealers, and authorizing the death penalty for pedophiles. [applause] while jurisdictions in this country were defunding law enforcement, florida stood up and back law enforcement. we have enacted for three years in a row $1000 bonuses for every sworn law enforcement and firefighter in the entire state of florida, and we now have a program that when cops leave places like philly or new york or chicago and the recruiter to come to florida, they are met not with derision but with a $5000 signing bonus. we appreciate what they are doing. [applause] florida has fought back against

the plate of soros backed district attorneys who believe it's up to them to determine which lost to enforce in which laws to ignore. when we had one of those prosecutors in florida that said he wasn't going to enforce laws he didn't like, i removed him from his post. he is gone. [applause] we have opposed illegal immigration by banning sanctuary cities, cracking down on human smuggling, deploying troops to help on the southern border and even sending illegal aliens to martha's vineyard. [applause] we have signed legislation prohibiting the use of a central bank digital currency in our state because we represent and we understand what they're trying to do with that. we have also been the first date

to eliminate dei from our universities in florida. [applause] they say it stands for diversity equity and inclusion but the way its practice its ideology being imposed on all these institutions, the way it is practiced dei better stands for discrimination exclusion and indoctrination, , and that has o place in our public university system. [applause] we have taken action to ensure that florida runs the most efficient and transparent election anywhere in the country. we have band out of harvesting in the state of florida. [applause] we have band soccer box in the state of florida and we required voter id not only in person but if you want an absentee bella you have to show id for that as well and we are able to count 8 million votes by midnight on

election night. [applause] we had the privilege recently to signed legislation rejecting the biden administration's attempt to unconstitutionally imposed the w.h.o. lockdown treaty. florida will not recognize any of those privations in our state. [applause] we protected medical freedom by banning mandates for covid shots come other mrna and emergency use vaccines and by being the first in america to ban gain of function research. [applause] and of all of those accomplishments while i'm proud of all that, maybe the thing where most proud of in florida is that we have taken a very strong stand for the idea that

the purpose of our schools is to educate kids, not to indoctrinate kids. [applause] and that with would respony for protect parents rights and to protect our children. [applause] and its fundamental for me obviously as governor i have to look to see education in our state because i know how important it is for the future of our state but it also see these issues through the lens of a dad, august 6, a five and a three year old. and my wife and i often times discuss the challenges that parents are facing. maybe i missed it but when i was growing up i didn't see and agenda to try to jam all the stuff down the kids throat. kids were just kids back then

and everyone agreed they were off-limits for any adult stuff and we didn't even go down this road. while now we're in a different spot and so this is a big deal for my wife and i but i am happy to have her come up and say a few words because -- [applause] she's a force and she's a great protector of children. >> thank you. my fellow mamas, i saw you standing up. i'm happy to be here and i'm happy to fight with the government and the most happy to fight on behalf of the mamas across the country. you know, i'm pretty happy to be a because you get to talk to someone older than four which is an accountant for me. i do with if you're wondering why my voice is little bit horse, well it's because i've been negotiating with a three-year-old all day today as why they cannot call her with permanent marker on the dining room table. or in the bathroom on the wallpaper in the governor spanky

said that's kind of life that our kids, six, five and three, the light of our lives. they are the reason why we fight. fight. they give us so much happiness, a little exhaust inelegant but don't think for a second when a government doesn't come all at the end of a long day i do hand them to him. although it is really funny is when he comes in at 8:00 after a long day he always wants to bring something. maybe from cases or somewhere else and is usually a sweet treat. so it's usually when they're going towards a bedtime routine that he decides to come in with a cupcake which is nice but it's okay. so listen i get questions all the time about the governor and one of the questions i get asked more than anything else they say we seem as a fight on tv. do we know whether he is going to be a fighter when he goes up to washington, d.c. and is taking on the swamp? i can tell you that's a good question because i get frustrated, too, with all these people in elected office who say they're going to go do something, then they go to washington they go rogue.

they don't hold true to what they told the people that they would do and it's frustrating. but i can tell you ron desantis always stands up for what's right. he never backs down. he says what he's going to do and he gets it done. [applause] there's a lot of examples that i can point to and he talks about it early but i think this is really important because when you look at covid the world descended upon florida. you had the corporate media, , e left, the white house, fauci, all prognosticating that every bad thing would happen unless the governor followed their dictate and their politicized unscientific orthodoxy. but he held the line in defense of the liberties of the people he represented. he never backed down. he took their livelihood and her happiness above his own and he

said, i love when he says of this, it's my job to defend your job even at the end of the date if it means that i lose my job. [applause] so all of this was in the face of unrelenting attack. when you could even turn on the tv for like five minutes and everybody were always attacking florida and the governor. how do you know he's going to go up to washington and hold the line stay strong a stand up for what's right? because when it matters when it really, really matters when our fundamental, fundamental principles are on the line our god-given rights on the line and you have to make a decision in a moment that matters, that forever impacts the people, their lives that you were there to represent that's why you ran for office. and you know you have two paths. you can take the path of least

resistance. you can subcontractor leadership to the medical bureaucracy. you can aim for self-preservation. you can be more interested in your political quote career or do you hold the line? do you defend the rights of the people, their ability to earn a living, to be with the loved ones especially in the final moments? do you fight for our children to be in school, to breathe without a mask forced on your face? [applause] do you ensure that people have the choice as to whether or not you want to take in mrna vaccine and serving not make a contingent upon their job? because at the end of the day at the end of the day it is what you do in a moment that matters and i can tell you the governor ron desantis is in it for the right reason, to defend the idea of america, to ensure that our children, , our six, five and

three-year-old who are currently destroying the governor's mansion, i can tell you that, grandma is on the job, but to ensure our children your children and your grandchildren have the opportunity to live up to their god-given potential and the governor is going to show the world that the best of america is yet to come. god bless you and thank you for the honor. [applause] >> well, thank you for that. that was wonderful and you haven't seen half of all that she is done for our state and she's been an inspiration to so many people. and she in our last campaign for governor she created 1 million mamas movement and the idea was to sign up 1 million mamas

throughout the state of florida. now because it's loaded we also qualify grandmas, too, but is good. she ended up signing up 1.1 million mamas for our -- [applause] and i think the parent of this country really going to rise up in 2024. i think this is good to be a central issue. do you support the rights of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children? do you believe parents have a right to know what curriculum is being used in their school? or don't you ask because the left doesn't believe they have that right. the left thinks the parents should butt out. now why would you not want the parents involved? most teachers know the parents involve the student is going to do better than if the parent is an involved and the recently built what the parent involved is not because the student achievement. they know if parents are involved that represents an impediment to them realizing

their agenda and using the school to pursue an agenda. so in florida we have enacted legislation to protect parents rights including curriculum transparency so parents of a right to know what books are being used, what the curriculum is and if it's inappropriate for aid or violates florida standard they can blow the whistle. now the media will say if there is a book that contains hard-core pornography in the fifth grade classroom, if a parent wants the renewed if that is quote banning a book. and let me tell you this is a hoax to talk about book bans. that's what they're doing. they are creating a hoax. because you have to make decisions about curating which books are any library of which books are in a classroom and, of course, using your tax dollars those decisions should be age-appropriate for the students involved. and so what i did because they are talking about all this we did a press conference and we called it exposing the book than hoax. before he had the parents come

up before i even said anything we played on a video screen the images and some of the text of what the parent objected to. the local news though recovering it had to cut 30 because they said it was too graphic. well, if it's too graphic for the 6:00 news how is it okay for a ten-year-old schoolchild? [applause] let's get real here. let's stop with the indoctrination and let's focus on education. and to that end florida led the way by eliminating critical race theory in our k-12 schools. we are not teaching kids to hate this country or to hate each other with your tax dollars. no. we're going to teach our kids what the constitution is all about. we're going to teach a civics

and teach them what it means to be an american. because after all we are graduating these kids. they are going to be citizens of our republic. they need to have an adequate foundation and know what that means. we can't graduate a a listless vessel that has no idea of what american freedom is all about. and we've also made to that message is received, florida we set aside one day every year i think we the only state that does this, to teach students about the evils of communist regimes throughout history. we teach the truth about marxism and leninism and were going to keep doing it. [applause] we have also led the way and i has been right there with us and recently studied a lot on this of eliminating gender ideology in our schools. [applause] it is wrong, it is wrong for a teacher to be telling a young

student that they may have been born in the wrong body or that their gender is a choice. we don't allow this in our schools and we don't now in florida we have banned bs from forcing students to choose pronouns are some of the schools around the country want a second grader to choose pronouns. we are not competing in the pronoun sweepstakes in the state of florida. [applause] now, i can show you the parent in the state of florida were very happy that we took those stands. the media was not happy about that here left was not happy about that and it was a little business that you may have heard of in florida that also wasn't happy about that named disney. and people told me they said listen, the media is coming after you, the left, but if disney weighs in they are the 800-pound gorilla, you better watch out, they are going to steamroll you.

well, here i stand. i'm not backing down one inch. [applause] we run the state of florida here they do not run the state of florida behind all these republicans are lining up against me to take the side of disney, but i'll tell you this, we stand for the protection of our children. we will fight those who seek to rob them of their innocence, and on that point there would be no compromise. [applause] it is also wrong for a swimmer to compete for three years on the men's team and then switch to the women's team and then be

named women's national champion. that not only takes away opportunities from our girls and our women athletes, and as a father of two daughters that are important for me, but it's also asking us to be complicit in a fraud. it is not true that that is the women's champion. and we're not going to accept things that are not true. [applause] and it said we even have to say this but it is wrong for physicians to perform sex change operations on minors. [applause] that is mutilation, a position to commit such acts in florida not only lose their medical license, they go to jail. [applause]

so with getting all of that done that we have so i can report the state of florida is friday. where the fastest-growing state in these united states. we rank number one in bed in migration and have for a number of years. we ranked number one in new business formations. we were recently ranked number one in education by u.s. news. we are number one for parental involvement in education. our crime rate is at a 50 year low and when one of the lowest tax and debt per capita rates in the entire united states. and so the the point of all that is when we say that we will do something it is not flop your we follow through and we produce results -- fluff. as president i pledge to be an energetic executive will take these important issues head on and deliver results.

[applause] we will reverse biden policies that have harmed our economy and we will build an economy where working americans can achieve a good standard of living. small business not big business need to be the focus of our economy. covid lockdown policies helped the large corporations and hurt the mom-and-pop. the large businesses are bigger than they were prior to covid. we also cannot allow the quest for short-term profits to trump the long-term national interests like our elites have done with the chinese communist party for more than a generation. we need to rebuild critical infrastructure and manufacturing capability in this country. we cannot be dependent on china for critical goods and material.

[applause] as the republican i'm frustrated on things like the border because i have been listening to these politicians talk about securing the border for years and years and years. i can tell you if i'm president this will finally be the time when we bring this issue to a conclusion. we will reestablish the sovereignty of this nation your we will declare a national emergency about the border. we will shut the border down. we will actually construct a border wall. we will in the mass migration and we will hold the mexican drug cartels accountable for murdering american citizens. [applause]

we also pledged to usher in a reckoning for the federal governments disastrous covid policy. from lockdowns to backs mandates the fiscal and monetary measures, the policies he voted freedom and they impose great harm on american society. we desperately needed accountability so this never happens to our country again. [applause] we will not allow malignant ideology to be imposed on our society. we will kneecap esg. we will next central bank could the currency and will fight against cancer culture. we will never surrender to the woke mob, and we believe will ideology in the dustbin of history. [applause]

joe biden has politicize the military and calls recruiting to plummet. we will eliminate ideological agendas from the military. we will refocus on the military core mission and we will reverse these poor recruiting trends. i don't want to anymore veterans come up to me, which they do frequently nowadays, and say it would not advise the young person to join today's military. we do to change that if we want our country to be strong again. and speaking of strength -- [applause] and speaking of strength we need to recognize that the chinese communist party is the primary threat facing our nation internationally. [applause] we need to have a strong military to counter that threat.

china has been empowered by elites in our own country for decades. they continue to build a strong military capability and they are seeking to eclipse america as a world leading superpower. we cannot allow our kids and grandkids to grow up in a century that is somehow a change century. it needs to continue to be an american century. [applause] biden has weaponized the power of the administrative state to advance his left-wing agenda. we will we constitutionalize the executive branch and will bring this administrative state to heal once and for all. now this is not easy to do and this power has accumulated over many, many decades and it requires the discipline, energetic president who will spit nails and five the needed battles every single day over an

eight-year period. you can't get cowed by the left. you can't worry about what the media is going to say. you need to start cleaning house on day one. [applause] and if you are faced with a destructive bureaucrat in your midst like a fauci, you do not empower somebody like fauci. you bring them into the office and you tell him to pack his bag. you are fired. [applause] and let's just be clear, it really does take two terms as president to be able to finish this job. the bureaucracy is so entrenched that i think we can bring george washington back and i don't think he could fix it in one

single four-year term but we must get the job done because if we do not re-constitutionalize discovered, we're not going to have constitutional government anymore. [applause] the bible teaches us that god opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. a leader, a leader must have humility to know that he can't do it alone. it's a team effort. you can make the best decisions in the world and a recognize this as governor when i became governor of florida. you could have great policies, you can make the decisions but you need to have a cadre of people with you that share your values and will put the mission first. and you can't just recycle people from washington, d.c. we need to inspire americans from around the country to maybe

take up your family and moved to the nation's capital for two, four, six, eight years because we need people who live in the country to come out to d.c. to reassert the right of we the people to run our own government. [applause] d.c. has impose its will on us for far too long. it's time we impose our will on washington, d.c. [applause] and you can't do any of this if you don't win. there is no substitute for victory. we must put an end to the culture of losing it has infected the republican party of recent years. not in iowa, not in florida but in way too many places. [applause] that tired dogmas of the past are inadequate for a vibrant

future. we must look forward not look backwards. we must have the courage to lead and we must have the strength to win because the stakes couldn't be higher. i believe that if we make this election a referendum on the failures of joe biden and if we provide a positive alternative for the american people that we will win the election, not just for president but for house, for senate, and will sweep into washington with a chance to great things. but we get distracted or without the election to be, about other things other than my failures. if he's able to hibernate in his basement for the whole campaign and not have to answer tough questions, well then we may be in danger of seeing a democrat sweep in 2024. and here's what they will do if they, if they sweep all the offices, house, senate and president. they were pack the u.s. supreme court and it will erase the

conservative majority that is truly on the supreme court. they will make d.c. estate to guarantee two additional democrat senators virtually for life. they will abolish the electoral college and it will eliminate voter id in every state in this country and mandate that bella harvesting be permitted in every state in this country. that is not an agenda that is speaking to the aspirations of the average american family. i don't even think they would claim that it's an agenda that is speaking to those aspirations. no, that is an agenda that is trying to render the conservative part of the country to be second-class citizens. and if we allow them to do that it will be very difficult for us to clawback and climb out of that hole. so my pledge to you is this. you nominate me as a presidential candidate, set your clock to january 20, 2025 at high noon on the west side of the capital because i'll have this left and on the bible and i will have that right in in the air and i will be sworn in as

the 47th president of these united states. [applause] no excuses. i would get the job done. [applause] we have a lot of work to do to ensure the country gets back on track. i ask you to join me on this mission. [applause] we have it within our power to reverse our nation's decline. together we will fight the good fight. we will finish the race and we will keep the faith, and when we do we will bring back our great american come back. thank you all. god bless you so much. [applause] we appreciate it. thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> c-span's campaign 2020 for coverage is your front-row seat to the presidential election. watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, media and reads, speeches and events. to make up your own mind. campaign 2024 on the c-span network, c-span now, our free mobile video at or anytime online at c-span.org. c-span unfiltered view of politics. >> american history tv saturdays on c-span2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 8 p.m. eastern on lectures in history university professor kevin kern talks about the men

from ohio over elected president including the seven who threw between 1868-1920 ulysses s. grant, rutherford hayes, james garfield, benjamin harrison, william mckinley, william taft and warren harding. at 9 p.m. eastern, hanks act or an executive of the animated short film how to rig an election, the racist history of the 1876 presidential contest talks about the controversial race between candidates rutherford b. hayes and samuel tilden. exploring the american story and watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and fd a full schedule on you program guide our watch onle anytime at c-span.org/history. >> ..