I appreciate it thank you and again think about your questions in this part uh the I want to ask I want to ask you a really important question you made a pretty Stark opening statement you've been in this race for nine months you've traveled the country has there been an interaction you've had with a voter or voters that has made you think differently right because you're coming in this race with a lot of conviction but has there been an interaction you've had with a voter in Iowa Ohio wherever you've been right that has made you think differently about an issue than you did previously sure I mean it happens it happens regularly all the time let me think of let me think of a good example on this I think I had one last night I mean it just happens so regularly but I'll just pick an example last night from New Hampshire where somebody who actually came to this country as an immigrant from Ukraine challenged me on my position on Ukraine my view is that we need to find a reasonable path to peace in Ukraine in a way that secures peace and advances American interest but this person says well how can Russia be allowed to win this war and one of the things I realized is that based on the things I was hearing from this individual she's American through and through but she felt like I probably hadn't communicated as effectively on my position so so the thing she had heard from me which I've said in the past in 30 second Forums on a debate stage with a little buzzer at the end you got to make your point cons precisely I said look if we're going to use our military to protect somebody else's border halfway around the world we should use our own military to protect our own Border in this country right here at home in the United States of America well I think one of the things and I stand by that but there's more to the story right so one of the things that I shared with her is she said why you why do you automatically assume that Russia and Ukraine are equal no I think that just Russia is a Putin is a craven dictator but just because Russia is bad doesn't mean Ukraine is good or perfect and there are complexities to this conflict that leave even many cases Ukraine worse off let alone the United States and so we had about a 20-minute exchange and what was the photo line there's a long line of people waiting to take the picture but this was important to me to have that one-on-one conversation with her and what I realized was that you know what she understood at least the basis for my position in a way she didn't get from watching me on a TV screen and so the number one lesson for me that I took away not just from that interaction but countless like it I have one every day went to UT Austin's camp campus two days ago 1,200 college kids on a college campus you're going to get some challenging questions as a Republican presidential candidate that's a good thing but every one of them were respectful they challenged me on some of my views on climate change they said you think climate change is a hoax I said not Qui I said climate change agenda is a hoax because we're shifting more carbon emissions to China than to the United States that doesn't affect anything relating to do with the climate it allows China to close the gap on the United States we're opening up conversations that we otherwise don't have and so so my number one learning in this campaign is that we're not really as divided as we're taught to believe as a country I truly believe that I think most of us in this room I don't know you all you you barely know me we're getting to know each other today I could venture to say right now at the start of this most of us believe in a basic ideals like meritocracy the pursuit of Excellence free speech and open debate self-governance over aristocracy the idea that we the people create a government accountable to us rather than the other way around those are the basic American founding ideals most of us believe that and maybe there's a selection bias because you're here on a Saturday morning well I think most of us probably also believe that our neighbors and our classmates and our colleagues and the parents of our kids' classmates also share these ideals in common but we're not quite sure about it anymore because we don't feel free to talk about it so that's my number one learning in this campaign fear has been infectious across this country people are afraid to say in public what they will say in private but you know what I've seen from college campuses to events like the one we were at last night courage can be contagious too it just requires more of us willing to speak our minds in the open and I am optimistic that if we do it our best days as a country we don't have to be in Decline our best days can still be ahead of us but that's not just up to me it's up to all of us that's where I land on that thank you thank you thank you guys please they have microphones for you apparently thank you thank you man hi I'm Nancy styles from Hampton and I understand that your one of your positions is to do away with the Department of Education I am a strong believer in local control however I question if you did away with all of their policies as well what Assurance would I have taking a fourth grade student out of New Hampshire and moving them to Chicago Texas wherever else that they would be put in the fourth grade there rather than pushed down to the third or moved up to the fifth where there' be socially inadequate can you help me with that and remind me your name again Nancy Nancy thank you Nancy it's a great question and Nancy you hit on a a fundamental theme for me in this campaign and and I think it's important that you all know what you're getting with me I don't want to pretend to be something that I'm not and and the good point about an election is you get to make a choice there are certain people good people in this race that will favor incremental reform of the federal government and the bureaucracy I'm not in that camp I favor Quantum Leap change I don't believe it is possible to incrementally reform agencies that have existed for a long time last good Republican president president Trump excellent president put Betsy dasas on top of the Department of Education I know both of them I know Betsy Devas she's a good person they said reform it doesn't work because now the Department of Education still exists spending more money than it ever has of our taxpayer dollars on a matter that the federal government should have nothing to do with that's local education so my approach is to actually take a lot of these agencies and shut them down where they should no longer exist take that 80 billion send it back to parents across this country so that and this is the part that addresses your question every parent whether they're here or if they move to Chicago or anywhere else has true educational Mobility for their children so let's say you're that parent then you show up and say oh they want to put you back in third grade well I'm not going to your school just because I chose to mind my by my house here because I am economically empowered with the 80 billion that the federal bureaucracy was previously spending through the Department of Education we shut that down put that money in the hands of parents across this country to send their kids to wherever they want to go to school you're going to find a different School within the 30 milei radius of Chicago that will say that he's going to be in fourth grade right where he left off when he left Hampton New Hampshire so competition is the true answer here we don't have it we have a brok system it's the Civil Rights issue of our time I believe that kids are trapped In the Ghetto of the ZIP code they're born in that's wrong I'm also a fan of this thing we call math okay so I'm going to walk you through some math here the schools that spend the most money per student today are also the schools that deliver the poorest result per student so I'm a business guy I'm not I don't come from the world of politics that to me is an opportunity what's the the opportunity here I'll give you specific numbers in New York City they spend $40,000 per student per year in the bad schools but good ones will spend 20 $15,000 per student per year so if a parent is moving their kid from the bad school to the good one they're moving to a school that spends less money per student I think the parent should be able to in that case take half of that difference with them so let's do the math on that $40,000 in the bad school $20,000 in the good school that difference is $20,000 half that difference is $110,000 put it in the account of that kid not only is that kid getting a better education if that's just invested according to normal returns and every year that kid gets that extra increment in their bank account that kid's graduating with a quarter million dollar graduation gift when he graduates from college it's not even close which is a better use of money but the first step to getting there is taking that 80 billion waste it at the federal level a federal department of education that's telling Local Schools you don't get that money unless you adopt toxic racial and gender ideologies that's where it's coming from the federal government says you don't get their money unless you do that no we have to shut that Beast Down you have to slay the Leviathan and that is not an incremental approach you're right about that if you want incrementalism I think it there's plenty of other candidates that will offer that but my view is we have a fourth branch of government that is unconstitutional the correct answer is shut it down and give the power and the money back to the people thank you Nancy parent to spend all of that money on education the parent would have to spend all the money on the education that's right that is specifically for the realm of Education that's exactly the answer so it underfund it it funds the otherwise underfunded Gap that you have in school choice programs across this country that's exactly how it would work specifically for Education thank you Nancy I appreciate it thank you we'll go to the back there and then we'll come back up front here Mr rwy um thank you you've expressed some illogical and dangerous positions just about everything under the Sun but I will only bring up a few points today okay been respectful of everyone but we'll we'll pick your favorite ones thank you just a few years ago we all saw firsthand the disastrous results when a ruthless capitalist a scam artist a showman and a liar with no Public Service experience became the president of the United States and yet we are here again my fellow New Hampshire residents are being manipulated by showman and Trump wannabes to win our votes Mr Rami you may be a millionaire and you may know how to avoid paying taxes by incorporating companies in Bermuda but let's talk about your lack of job qualifications you're not qualified to become the principal of my children's School of only 1,000 students you're not qualified to be the select Board of my town with a population of 16,000 people and you're definitely not qualified to run for the highest office of our nation to govern 330 million Americans spewing nonsensical FASTT talking empty words interspersed with Nam dropping Thomas Jefferson and George Washington should not be misconstrued as knowledgeable we Americans should stop thinking that rich men who fund their campaigns and manipulate us into thinking that they're smart or savvy are qualified for the presidency to receive the codes to launch nuclear weapons and to become the commander-in-chief of our military forces yes it's coming Mr ramaswami if we American voters thank you it's coming we'll let her finish we'll give her a chance to finish thank you end with the question mark though thank you yeah yeah thank you thank you you will yeah yeah you if we American voters keep supporting self-promoting showmen who treat the US Presidency or vice presidency as an entry-level position then we the American people are to blame for the destruction of our Democratic institutions please your thoughts now thank you okay I appreciate that before you answer before you answer I want to answer that yeah I know you want to answer and I want you to answer but everyone remember everyone's in here at the same time you can make your point but get to the question first try to okay and hard questions are welcome just to end them with the question mark is all I say so here's what I will say there's what do I hear embedded in that question there's a fundamental skepticism of somebody who comes from outside and take as an entrylevel job that was what was in your question which I think is a valid criticism an entry-level job to be the US president let me just share with you one of my learnings in this campaign we have an imperfect system right now and you all face imperfect choices in that system we were talking about this backstage what was the number one learning for me this is a super pack puppet game it's my number one learning coming in from the outside you're told that candidates actually run campaigns that you fund by giving $35 contributions nonsense the system is funded by not multi-millionaires multi-billionaires who use politicians in both parties Democrat and Republican party as their puppets the super Pacs are a Cancer on our system so if you want to break that system and I'll tell you it's a law of nature it's like a law of physics as the sun rises in the East and sets in the west every politician dances to the tune of their biggest donor it's just a fact now in my case it is true that that biggest donor is me now do I want a system in which only people who have had the level of success that I've had in the world of business and the American dream are the ones who are able to run for president no but is that better than a system where it's somebody else's billionaire puppet that's on that debate stage that actually is just uttering words handed to them by billionaire provided Super PAC yes I think that's better and I think if we're going to address the corruption in Washington DC the corruption of people there are other candidates in this race that fit this description making millions of dollars off of Connections in government service afterwards lobbying in a career using government connections this is corruption that exists in both parties then yes I do think it will take an outsider to that system coming in to break that system one of the things that I think we need to stop apologizing for in this country is the power of capitalism I have succeeded not in government and I will not Fain having government experience that I don't have but the people who do have government experience in some ways got us into the mess that we're in today so I think we live in a moment where it will take an outsider someone who comes from the outside ideally even someone who comes from the Next Generation to reach the next generation of whom we have so many in this room today I think it will take somebody whose best days I hope are still yet ahead in life to see a country whose best days are still yet ahead in life and I'm not name dropping when I mentioned and Thomas Jefferson these are people I look up to as our founding fathers he was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence I'm an old man by comparison he invented the swivel chair while he was at it that's the founding Spirit we need to revive in this country and in this particular moment yes I do think it will take an outsider to do it yes I do think it will take an outsider to address our national debt $33 trillion we need to CEO in the White House how does a CEO run a business how have I run the business as I've run zerob based budgeting don't start with last year's budget as the Baseline because last year's budget was broken by the same existing political class and last year's budget was the based on the previous year's budget which was equally broken by the same corrupt special interest system so I say break that system start with zero as the Baseline and then ask what's actually necessary you're not going to get that type of leadership from somebody who comes from I think within that broken system so you're right you do face a choice as I shared with n here earlier if you want somebody who's going to incrementally reform the bureaucracy the bureaucracy and the administrative state I'm not your candidate if you want somebody who has government experience as their qualification to be your next president then I'm not your candidate but if you want somebody who comes from the outside a patriot who speaks the truth uncaptured to buy the super packs willing to get in there and actually gut that shadow government the corrupt swamp in Washington DC but actually see the job through as a leader from a different generation to reach the next Generation then yes I am your candidate and that is why I'm in this race and the beauty of this is a you have the right to speak your mind as as everybody else in this room that's what makes America beautiful that's what makes America great and the part that really makes our system what it is is that that choice belongs to you not to me and I'm grateful for the opportunity you guys have given us so next question thank [Applause] you we'll go right here this gentleman right here yeah please thank you and then we'll go right behind you and then we'll bring it back up here okay my questions will be regarding the Palestinian situation now before I ask my question I want to set the records first for myself I hate hate War situations secondly I do not like politicians if you win this if you a couple I agree with you on the first both counts if you win this election you're going to be politician and probably I won't like you either that's fair all right now Palestinian situation everybody is calling it a Hamas situation which is totally wrong it's not Hamas it's Palestinian situation because Hamas is the organization which was started or created by Israel with the help of us we had one Hitler in the history he created the Holocaust we have another vanab be Hitler in Israel who want to create another Holocaust in Middle East with the Palestinian people now my question to you where do you stand here right now on the Palestinian situation and how this can be resolved and where what is your take on it I hear your view sir and and also one last thing is there's one Hitler wnab be in in um Middle East and other is right behind him guess who so let me just respond to that question I know that there are diverse views on this question I respectfully disagree with yours on this I think it is wrong when we in the United States or in the UN or anybody else create a false equivalence between Israel defending its own Homeland versus the behaviors of the terrorists who Target Israel so I reject the comparison and I think I'll just speak candidly you shared your view I'm going to share mine I think it is offensive to compare the current prime minister of Israel to Hitler I think that is way off base and I deeply disagree with that that is wrong now let me say something further I I I say without apology Israel has the absolute right to defend its own Homeland I'm different from the the far left that might give these criticisms of Israel of course many of us in this room are but I also want to be clear-headed about it I absolutely stand for Israel's right to defend itself but I also recognize the position I'm running for is president of the United States of America and my moral obligation as the US president is to American citizens so there's a couple things I will say about that yes we will stand with Israel in its right to defend its own Homeland give diplomatic air cover frankly this gentleman we don't have to be upset at him the UN pretty soon is going to start to effectively say the same things we have to tell the UN that that's wrong we have to provide Israel with diplomatic support Munitions support as needed further even provide them with intelligence sharing get to the bottom of that intelligence failure frankly both in the US and Israel that allowed this to happen but we have to do it in a way that avoids broader regional conflict in the Middle East that does not Advance American interest $3 trillion do spent in Iraq and Afghanistan to what end the Taliban is still in charge in Afghanistan 20 years later frankly a hostile anti-American regime in Iraq that's vulnerable to Iranian incursion that didn't Advance American interest and we have to own up to that and there are many in the Republic party some of you may have seen an interview a few nights ago with with Hannity it was a disaster from you know in terms of the lack of clarity in the neocon wing of the Republican party that fails to admit those errors of the past that we have to learn from so I think we've made our worst decisions in the past when we've responded emotionally to military crisis or to crises of other kinds we have to respond rationally cool-headed and ask what advances the American interest and then the one point I will make is yesterday I was at Eagle Pass in Texas on the southern border last Saturday exactly a week ago from right now I was in Pittsburgh on your northern border in New Hampshire taking a look at the wide open border with Canada the number one lesson we have to take away in the US is if that can happen in Israel that can happen right here at home in the United States of America and my top job as your commander-in-chief when it comes to our National Defense is to defend our own Homeland against that border Invasion against cyber attacks super EMP attacks missile attacks space-based attacks that we're vulnerable to in the United States we have an establishment in both parties in the last 25 years that has left us vulnerable fighting in other parts of the world but failing to defend our own Homeland and that's my job as your next president while honoring our relationships with our allies and I think that's the kind of rational non-emotional cool-headed approach we're going to need in the next commanderin-chief and that's the way I'm going to lead as your next president we'll go right behind you thank [Applause] you my name is Jim MERS I live in Portsmith New Hampshire um a question is immediately after the Russian special military operation in Ukraine the United States Froze all Russian assets they could find in the banking system uh now a republican member of Congress has proposed going a step further and actually confiscating the assets and putting them to whatever use we want for example the us could take the Russian money and pay ourselves back for what we gave to Ukraine my question is how do you feel about Crossing that what's your view on Crossing that line between freezing and confiscation it's a great question what's your name Jim Jim thank you for asking these are that's why I love New Hampshire I mean these are questions in the interstices but they matter so I think there's a stronger case for using the financial system to exact reparations in the case of China which Unleashed hell on the world with a man-made virus that was leaked that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and people around the world and cost this economy billions upon billions by way of understatement so that's if we're going to talk about a case of using Financial levers to hold another country accountable that's the one that's high on my list but I think that the right way we deal with Russia and my view is very different from the rest of the field in both parties on this is that do I trust Vladimir Putin no I do not but did Nixon trust Mau in 1972 no he did not but we did what we needed to do we pulled Mao Mao zong in the old communist China out of the USSR because the USSR was our top threat well today communist China is our top threat and I worry our policies are driving Russia further into China's arms when the Russia China Alliance today represents the single greatest threat that we face as Americans so what does that mean we need to do I actually think we live in a moment where we could reopen some of those relations with Russia I think it was wrong bad idea for us to bomb or be responsible for allowing the bombing of the northstream 2 pipeline it's basically all but certain that the United States was aware of it if not directly involved in it that was a mistake pull Russia out of China's hands do I trust Putin no but I trust to follow his self-interest just as he can trust us to follow ours and that actually weakens China China's top BET right now is that if they invade Taiwan the US won't want to go to war with two different Allied nuclear superpowers at the same time but if Russia is no longer in China's Camp then xiin ping is going to have to think twice so yes I think we live in a moment where it's going to take somebody who thinks outside of the traditional box to take us off the path to World War III that I worry that we are slowly on already we are too complacent right now I think we Face a risk of major conflict and era of the Russia China Alliance other hostile powers to the United States of major conflict and my foreign policy is really simple avoid World War II declare economic independence from China and protect this Homeland right here in the United States of America those those are my top three priorities everything else pales in comparison thank you for that question I appreciate it thank you we'll come to this side and we'll go back and forth between these sides come to this gentleman right here Vic nice to meet you it's good to see you what's your name Neil Neil from Hampton Falls quick question it's current um about the speaker of the house and a couple weeks ago Matt Gates and Coalition um effectively ousted Kevin McCarthy my question is what are your views on the reasons why he was voted out so I have a benefit here of not coming from that world of DC partisan horse trading and personality driven vengeancesynyster for those of you who don't know who that is don't worry about it doesn't matter I mean Donald Trump or somebody else right forget the question of the who for a second let's talk about the what and the why what do we stand for and why do we stand for it right what I see what we should be should be talking about right now the $33 trillion national debt that our next generation is going to bear on their shoulders unless we do something about it there were negotiations led by McCarthy and others to raise the debt ceiling well to what end we still have a $33 trillion national debt nobody's talked about how we deal with that the Border crisis of historic proportions I was at Eagle Pass yesterday watching people literally just pour over into this country I've never seen in my life a more organized let alone government organized process for violating the law at such a large scale a dependence on China our enemy for our modern way of life that continues to grow by the day an economy that's flailing we haven't seen since The Carter era so yes I want to talk about the what and the why tell me about what our plan is to address the crises that we face and then the question of the who becomes much more obvious what do we stand for why do we stand for that's what I want us talking about and part of the reason you see this conflict pop up in the Republican party ever so often which will be show up in the form of some personality conflict and the media and everything being what it is loves to fixate on those is there symptoms of a deeper loss of Direction and purpose in the Republican Party itself right now I worry the Republican party has become a hollowed out husk of a party in search of an agenda so I'm not engaged in the personality driven bickering I could care less for it I don't think it advances our goals I want to focus on the what and the why and then we can pick which person we put in the responsibility of the nanny to Shepherd you know a couple hundred people in Congress that's the less important question than the substance of it itself and so the good news news in all of that is sometimes in chaos there can actually be opportunity and so I hope if we use this as an opportunity and I'm trying to do my part to help lead this way if we use this chaos to actually say we don't have a speaker who's it going to be well maybe we'll just talk about what we stand for and why we stand for it and use that as our litness test to pick the right speaker then we will be stronger on the other side for it so that's the kind of way I approach this and lead with this issue thanks a lot I appreciate that question thank you thank you we'll come to this gentleman in the front here I hi I'm s from New Jersey uh I do see the president of a country as a CEO of the country with that said someone having a high level of empathy so with the financial distress distress that is lurking I'm curious to know what your thoughts are to balance that with all the government programs that needs to go on to really respect the empathy that's required great question thank you so the good news is I think we live in a moment where those aren't tradeoffs they go together some of the financial distress comes from spending government money we don't have well one of my policies as US president is we will stop using our taxpayer money to pay people to do the exact opposite of what is best for them right now we pay single mothers in inner cities I've been to the south side of Chicago and elsewhere single mothers who get more money not to have a man in the house they're married to than to have a man in the house who they're married to when in fact the nuclear family is inherently good 25% fatherlessness rate in this country yes we ought to have empathy for kids who grow up in those households who are eight times more likely to end up in prison 10 times more likely to end up in poverty over 10 times less likely to graduate from high school or enter and get a college degree but we're using our government money to do it we're using our government money to pay people more not to go to work than to go to work not only is that leaving people economically worse off that's driving a mental health epidemic of depression and anxiety in gen Z and Young Americans who are responding to bad government incentives so I could go straight down the list I've been to Kensington in the inner city of Philadelphia you know what happens there the Aid programs including funded by the government hand out crack pipes and needles as a form of Aid we need to stop even last night at the border actually just to bring this up happened yesterday I watched a father and a daughter Crossing that Rio Grand the US Coast Guard brought them over I I saw the whole thing the daughter was there she's 12 years old the father was in shock from cold like literally physical shock he had to be hospitalized she ended up under a bridge we saw over the course of the couple hours there the whole story play out we asked her in Spanish why are you here she said in search for opportunity in search for a better life 12-year-old girl from Honduras that is not compassion that is cruelty and so I think we live in a moment where this isn't a tradeoff between bringing the CEO mindset to the White House which I do zero based budgeting on down address our national debt crisis grow our economy do it without apology but we live in a moment where that government money from the Department of Education which we talked about earlier on down isn't even serving the very people it was supposed to help so yes I think it takes a CEO but I think it takes a CEO who understands with conviction that it's not a tradeoff versus who's going to suffer as a consequence of the decisions what decisions can we first make that are going to help everybody lift them up from economic struggle from poverty in many cases as well and I do think that that question part about young people who are often baited by government Aid to even opt out of the workforce we're seeing that spread across the country what's the real crisis in the United States of America today it's even deeper than our economy I can tell you this speaking as a member of my generation we are starved for purpose and meaning and IDE identity at a time in our national history when the things that used to fill that void Faith patriotism hard work family these things have disappeared and that leaves a black hole in our hearts and when you have a black hole that runs that deep that is when the poison fills the void it almost doesn't matter what the poison is actually even we in our party sometimes obsess over it too much wokeism transgenderism climatism cism globalism depression anxiety fentel suicide these are symptoms of a deeper void of purpose and meaning for a long time we in our party we have been running from something now is Our Moment to actually start running to something to our vision of what it means to be an American and I think our government has played a role in creating that vacuum by paying people in the name of helping them to actually leave them the very recipients of that so-called Aid or help worse off than they otherwise would have been not only economically but even in a deeper sense and one of my jobs as US president half the job of a US president is policy no doubt about it and I'm glad we're talking a lot about policy today for US senator or Congressman that's almost 100% of the job but for the US president it's my belief that at least half the job is Reviving a national character that we lack today that's what Reagan said in ' 89 when he left office of all the things he could have picked bringing us to the near end of the Cold War getting out of stagflation in the Carter era growing the economy he didn't say any of that when he left office in his farewell speech the thing he talked about was being proud of Reviving a national character that we lacked when he first took office in 81 I think a lot about not what I want to tell you in my inauguration speech in January 2025 that's not the destination that is the start line the the destination for me in this journey is January 2033 what do I want to tell you that we actually did that's the way want to CEO in the white house we think about the destination I want to tell you we shut down much of the administrative State 75% headcount reduction in the number of federal employees we drill we frack we burn coal we Embrace nuclear energy we roll back those regulations we put people back to work by no longer paying them more to stay at home than to go to work that we declared economic independence from China we did it while keeping us out of World War I most importantly of all though I want to tell you that we revived national pride in our two sons and their generation they won't even be in high school when we leave the White House in January 2033 after two terms but that's what I want to tell you and yes I think you're right that will take not just the technical CEO it's important but it's not the entire job that's half the job through the policy the other half is answering what it means to be an American today if you ask most people my age that question what does it mean to be an American you get a blank star in response it's like a deer in the headlights that is the vacuum that's the void and I think the most important job of the next president is to decisively answer that question deliver a vision of our national identity that runs so deep that it dilutes the poison to irrelevance that's actually how we're going to win and that's the standard I want you all to hold me to if you all put us in that office thank you very much R I appreciate we're gonna have time oh real quick democracy speeds things up we're going to have time for one more question oh my goodness okay we're running out of time it's up to you oh my goodness I you looking around here this gentleman in the back is a young man he's had his hand up for a while so give a young person the Mr Rami I'm a junior at the Philip exer academy nearby um we recently just saw judge dardy agree with the attorney generals of Missouri and Louisiana that the B Administration colluded with Twitter and other big Tech to silence reports of Hunter's laptop like the New York Post and continue throughout his administration to silence conservatives on social media how as president would you confront big Tech and ensure that the first amendment is protected on all platforms first of all I want to say I'm proud of a 16-year-old how old are you 16 17 really in the weeds here and then that one hits close to home for me because that particular case and the ruling was argued in part drawing on a legal theory that this is just a coincidence I happen to have played a small role in authoring three years ago on the pages of the Wall Street Journal with a former law professor of mine and we made an argument at the time that was dismissed widely people laughed at it as a conspiracy theory now it's in the mainstream of our appell of court system which I'm proud of which said this right right the traditional wisdom is that the First Amendment you know the First Amendment enshrines free freedom of religion free expression that's freedom of speech and otherwise freedom of assembly and so on that the First Amendment only applies to the government but that companies are free to silence speech as they see fit well hold on there a second that's true if the companies are actually behaving as companies but it turns out and this was evident in January of 2021 when I co-wrote that piece that these cases are now drawing on turns out if the government is threatening companies to do something through the back door that the government couldn't do through the front door then the Supreme Court has long held that those companies are still Bound by the First Amendment there's a case actually the banam books case that's about 40 50 years ago there's a bookstore owner who wanted to sell a book the prosecutor and the local government government didn't like the book they said take it down he refused to they then threatened him and said we're going to bring some case against you on an unrelated matter well then the book store is I don't want to deal with that he takes the book down a customer wants to buy the book he sues they said oh it's just a private company the Supreme Court said not so fast that was the government threatening the private company in that case the bookstore owner today it's Facebook or Google to do something through the back door the government couldn't do directly because this is New Hampshire I'm going into a layer of depth I wouldn't usually go into here same thing with incentives if the government gives you a carrot to do something the government couldn't do directly that's State action in Disguise so there's a case involving the railroads during the War on Drugs government wanted to fight drugs and they said we want to search and seize drugs on passengers well the government can't do that directly because we have this pesky little thing in the United States called the fourth amendment I think it's a good thing but the government is they passed a law that said that the Railroad employees or or or uh operators would not be liable for being sued by passengers or by employees if the railroad chose to search them it's not the government doing it it's just a private company doing it the Supreme Court said not so fast if it's state action in Disguise that you gave those companies an incentive purposely to do something the government couldn't do the Constitution still applies well what do we have now section 230 which tells tech companies it's a special law that gives tech companies special liability immunity from being sued for taking down constitutionally protected content so one of the things I've learned in my short time in this political world is sometimes you got to make things a rhyme to make them stick so what we say is if it is State action in Disguise then the Constitution still applies if the government is threatening these companies and giving them carrots and sticks to do its dirty work through the back door then these companies all are and ought to be bound by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and this is I think if if we're if we're closing on this question maybe I'll wrap it this way which is to say that we live in a complicated time the threats to Liberty aren't what they were back in 1980 I believe the building we're in I was told before I walked in here was one where Abraham Lincoln famously spoke about 160 years ago Lincoln said it at the height of the Civil War the dogmas of a quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present I say the dogmas of 1980 Even in our conservative movement are inadequate to address the unique challenges that we face in the year 2023 Reagan didn't face he faced just big government but didn't face the collusion of big government and big business to together do what neither could do alone and the real irony in all of this is the reason Silicon Valley is doing it is that the old version of breakup big Tech used to come from the left so what they basically said is hey we'll censor hate speech and misinformation as you define it but we won't do it for free we want the left to now look the other way when it comes to leaving our Monopoly power intact just like Wall Street did it on the back of the 2008 financial crisis so these are complex threats we face today today and I believe we require a commanderin-chief who deeply understands the unique nature of those threats we face today it won't work we're just going to scratch the surface and get nowhere if you have a super pack paid politician puppet who reads slogans served up to them on a teleprompter to pretend to be a republican instead of a Democrat and the same old game moves on no the system isn't changing the broken corrupt super super pexus and the people that send you the advertisements you see here in New Hampshire this depends on whether you can cut through that and I trust you guys here our process depends on it you all go first in the reason to tell the difference between somebody who's serving you up PO tested slogans and somebody who has a deep first personal understanding of the threats we face and how we're going to overcome them and what I will say is how old are you man you're 16 right look like you're about 16 that's about right so I'm proud of you for coming out here on a Saturday morning and asking this question you're young but what I will say is our nation is actually a little young we don't have to be that nation in Decline we don't have to be ancient Rome at the end of the Roman Empire as we're taught to believe I think we are really just a little young going through our own version of adolescence figuring out who we're really going to be when we grow up and when you view it that way at least for me it makes sense again you go through your adolescence you go through that identity crisis you lose your way a little bit you lose your self-confidence it make some mistakes I did when I was your age most of us probably did but we are stronger for it when we get to our adulthood on the other side so no I don't think we have to be that nation in Decline I think we are still yet a nation in our Ascent maybe the early stages of our Ascent try it this way maybe we're not even at base camp on our way way to that shining City on Hill that country where no matter who you are or where your parents came from or what your skin color is or how long your last name is in some of our cases that you get ahead in this country with your own hard work your own commitment your own dedication and that you know what you are free to speak your mind mind at every step of the way I was looking for the early question she she might have left but every one of us you are free to speak your mind at every step of the way that is the American dream that is what we are running to and that is what we together will revive to save our great country thank you for coming out this morning God bless you God bless our United States
