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tv   Key Capitol Hill Hearings  CSPAN  May 11, 2015 9:00pm-11:01pm EDT

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new jersey. neither place made really from -- didn't make a lot of sense to drill. on the one hand, drying to drill in a place that's dry and you need a lot of water and liquid to frack the well, and there's a lot of competing demands for that water. then you go to another place like shesh won with that population density it was difficult to drill there. we didn't get all of the details you did in the united states. there were a number of protests over as trucks came in as rigs and things were set up, there were a lot of local protesters saying what is going on. what's the impact going to be, how are we going to be compensated for this. and that essentially slowed the chinese growth of shale, even though arguably china would be an extraordinary beneficiary of more domestically produced gas. they're report tg in enormous
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numbers, it is no secret they have large environmental and pollution problems and would like to do some production with gas. we don't have it resolved. the shale that seems to move quickest, in argentina that's -- just happens to be lucky it is in a fairly remote area where there has been a history of mining and there's sufficient water there so once again you happen to have found a place with the right conditions beneficial conditions for going forward. those are few and far between. i'm going to come back to this issue that what really made shale takes off in the united states is the fact you had companies and land men going out handing out large checks 10 $20,000 an acre to lease the land, then oh, by the way, get
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an eighth of the royalties on oil and gas that comes afterwards. companies had to do that because the individuals owned mineral rights. there are just -- i don't believe there are any other countries, if there are, it is escaping me that have private ownership of mineral rights. so what does the state do? there hasn't been a good answer for that. >> your book does a great job talking boy the positives and negatives of fracking. assuming another country decides to move forward with fracking beyond argentina, what are some of the lessons learned you can pass on based on the experience in the united states. >> well, i think there have been several. first of all one of the problems we've had in the united states, we start drilling for oil and gas in an area and all of a sudden there are disputes about how has this impacted the quality of water or impacted the quality of air. one of the lessons learned,
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doing this to an extent in pennsylvania, measure the quality of water before you start drilling measure the quality of air. that way you know exactly what the impact has been, and as a bonus, you develop a fairly large environmental database about the quality of air and water in the countryside which is not bad to have. better data understanding is first and foremost. another thing that i think was certainly a lesson the federal government learned out of the deepwater horizon is that it is difficult to have one government agency that's both promoting development of the resource and attempting to regulate it as well. one of the things the federal government did offshore after deepwater horizon is split it into groups. we haven't seen the states do that very well but certainly if shale development takes place elsewhere, that would be something i would look for. have one government body charged with leasing and getting interest and getting exxon and other companies to come in and another charged with protecting
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the quality of water. the final point is well construction. sounds boring, well integrity, it is critically important. make sure if you're drilling wells 5,000 feet deep that you are building the wells well and that they're going to survive for 20, 30 40, 50 years and you're sure of that up front because that's how -- we talked about fracking and problems associated with fracking. most are associated with well integrity. if you can build the well right get the commenting and steel right, you're not going to have those problems. >> terry, i know that you wrote very recently something about missteps in pennsylvania and in response to some international bans on fracking in romania france and other places. what are those missteps following up on what russell was saying. >> russell has mentioned a
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couple of them. in order of importance i think one of the great failures in pennsylvania was to understand industry understood how important it was to measure the quality of water in individual wells, they misunderstood that that baseline chemistry had to be established in every well. so if they did it in one well in ten, that proved not to be good enough because in pennsylvania, for example, there are no standards for water wells and it is well known that 40% of all private water wells in pennsylvania would not pass epa standards. and it is very easy for the public to identify a well that they have problems with and immediately blame it on industry regardless of whether that actually happened, so as russell has mentioned water well standards. the second of course importance was well construction, and just to amplify a little further the
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early wells drilled in pennsylvania by more than one company were wells in which a production string was passed down through several thousand feet of upper rock without being cemented. at the time that industry first came to pennsylvania, industry did not realize the extent to which this three to four thousand foot interval of section was gas charged in itself, not gas from marcellus necessarily but other gas from other layers. and that came into the open well bore, went up several thousand feet and right into ground water. so those are the two most important. other issues one of which was industry made i think a fundamental error in a law passed known as the hall burton loophole in which additives that were put into frack fluid were
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secret. any time you keep a secret, it creates public distrust. that was remedied rapidly by a website called frack focus. then there was disposal of water, what to do with it. early on in pennsylvania, a lot of water was dumped down wells and we have known as geologists for the better part of a half century that you put a certain amount of water down a well, that will cause local earthquakes. it was discovered in rocky mountain arsenal in the '60s, yet it is an area that's repeating, incidentally is going on in oklahoma and that is not a consequence of fracking, that's really the production of oil with a very very large water cut where the water has to be disposed of and it is being disposed of in massive amounts, and we know this, that's going to cause earthquakes. another issue when industry
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arrived, industry arrived from places like west texas where there were very few people living and you didn't have to do such things as build holding tanks very well for flow back fluids arriving in pennsylvania suddenly you had to manage these fluids well. the first holding tanks were open pits in the ground lined with plastic which tended to leak. now industry will completely self contain systems to prevent this from going on. another industry habit that created a lot of problems early on, industry would air drill. by air drilling 1,000 feet through the water table that air under high pressure is designed to push cuttings back up the bore hole where they can be recovered. but that air pressure pushed against open holes in which the air pressure was leaking into surrounding rock that had groundwater. that pushed a front of methane
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in front of it toward people's water wells, pushed tur bid water toward people's wells this created a number of issues. if you're the owner of a private well that's been reasonably clean for years and suddenly it becomes turbid, starts to bubble with methane, you're going to raise cane. that's the list of the six mistakes the industry made, all of which have been mitigated to a reasonable extent right now. but those were the six that of course caused an international uproar and it will take industry a long time to down live that. >> sebastian, do you want to add lessons learned for the industry and investors out there in other countries? >> yeah, i thought it was very comprehensive, some of the problems terry said were highlighted in various media forms was before these learnings. what other countries have a huge
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benefit now of is a fine degree of best practice. from well construction and water disposal water procurement to mitigating truck traffic if and when possible and how to dispose of water wells and avoid earthquakes by doing seismic programs making sure you're not near local faults. there's so much. we have learned so much and where some of the problems are being highlighted right now more in transportation than in the physical production of product because we have come such a long way. i think any other country will be a huge beneficiary of those lines. >> before i open it to the floor, this is atlanta council talk geopolitical for a second. there was a lot of talk when the ukrainian crisis happened about potentially taking gas and liquifying it, sending it to the united states. lots of bills recently about
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crude and l and g exports. is that really feasible or not? >> there's no reason technically you couldn't do that. there's a large -- around the world, you take natural gas, cool it to 160 degrees below zero, put it on a ship take it elsewhere. that happens all the time. i think the issue that came up around the ukrainian crisis was one of timing. that was a crisis that needed a short term solution and l and g and exporting gas is long term. it is going to take years to put that infrastructure into place, but if that's the direction u.s. policy wants to go, there's absolutely no reason the u.s. couldn't be a large exporter of gas. the other hiccup i suppose with that thinking is that the u.s. energy system isn't government
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controlled. the federal government may have had every reason in the world to want to bring gas to the ukraine at that point, but it doesn't have a history of telling the exxon and bps and shells and chevrons where to direct the gas, we let the market do that. so there are a couple of big changes that would be required to get to that point. >> anybody else? >> i was going to add when i think about some of the hurdles that oil has now, given what oil prices are, one of the hurdles is we are not the low cost producer. in shale we are definitely at the low end of the spectrum. the other thing is in oil we can export, in shale gas we can. so my pendulum has swung back. the third thing is that gas companies have adjusted their capacity to this lower gas price world. the oil producers are about to undergo a very traumatic probably few years in adjusting
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to it. so i kind of feel good about the u.s. gas producer. the other thing and this is a longer term view, where i think the l and g game is going to change, also just a complete historical shift is its link to the oil price. as there are more ships on the water, i think you'll see delinking from crude and it will be a market to itself far more i don't know competitive situation when you don't have an oil price link, even if oil was to go back don't have a link providing umbrella for these projects. then it will be the best project wins. that's a shift we are likely to see. if i am an end user one of say a half dozen countries companies can't do this but countries can. they'll say we aren't taking that price and we will see which are the best projects. i think the u.s. is well
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situated for the l and g. >> terry? >> yet i am reminded that gas coming out of the middle east a lot of that gas is associated gas, which means it is produced as a byproduct of producing oil which means that it is produced at no cost. of course the american gas shale producers still have a cost. and in principle even if we were to liquify the natural gas, we might be competing against a market where people could continually undercut whatever it is we want to sell overseas. this is true of canadians who were trying to liquify natural gas. they were competing against gas coming out of the middle east that can invariably undercut canadian gas. >> throw it open to the floor for questions. somebody have a mike?
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back here. please introduce yourself. >> pardon me? >> please introduce yourself. >> bill holland, reporter with s and l energy. i interviewed two of the three up there. and before i question i want to share a story. was at the first appellation conference in pittsburgh in 2008 when he got up and changed estimates of size we have gone from 15 to 500 ccf. 500 held up. i watched these people leak out of the room when they heard that number and get on their telephones. so that brings me to my first question. we have three that are stacked. do you have a number for the total of all three, what the potential gas is there? >> you know, i'm like a better who hit the jackpot once and the smart better that hit the
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jackpot once will not try again. having said that let me remind you, bill, that the appalachian basin is amazing. big sandy field. i like to think in terms of this being a stack of six and you can let your imagination run wild in terms of what this will do. there are some good bricket wells. i think you counted that as the third level. at the same time, wine street was tested in the western part of the state. there are some people happy with the outcome. let me remind you that when sue bish first called me up we looked at the five original range wells the ip coming out
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of those went from 1.4 million cubic feet the high one 4.7 or something like that. at that point in time 4 million cubic feet a day was judged as a great well. of course, right now 4 million is a failure so that i think each one of those layers i named have come up to that 2008 standard but today we have utica range holds the record right now. utica at flow rate of 59 million equivalent. >> and 54 on the marcellus. >> yeah. it is a big number. let me just say i'm content with 500 trillion cubic feet. this is technically recoverable. has nothing to do with today's prices. i might add recently university of texas has run a study too,
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and they basically stated we come up with about the same number for the marcellus 500 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas. there's a bunch there. and i don't think we have to worry about running out of stuff in the next five or ten years, as they said of the stone age, the stone age didn't come to an end because we ran out of stones. >> all right. follow-up question if i could. they went through a price crash, spent a year recovering now producing more than ever. chance they end up doing the same or is that a different commodity operating in a different market? different commodity. there's gas producer, i believe devin has done this. he hasn't had a rig running for a couple of years. their barnett shale production is pretty flat, impossible.
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physically impossible. did it through compression and maintenance, refracks, for instance they're not certain they could do that. vertically. you don't add compressors to a pipeline to allow oil into it you have to do artificial work. i don't think it is going to work. so the other aspect is in terms of capital, the gas producer basically took a dollar and said i am going to spend 70 cents in oil, but going to put another 20 cents back in gas but not going to tell you, right? what we are looking at now is that you don't have capital for the gas or oil producer there's nowhere left to turn.
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so -- and it goes back to the original point what's the shape of the u.s. supply curve. you know right now second and third quarters will probably be troughs for u.s. oil supply and in the fourth quarter we will see. what we see in 2016 is the base decline rate mathematically does decline. should take less money to maintain volumes if not grow slightly. the biggest change is my ability to outspend cash flow. that's a much bigger shift. if i can't spend 130, 150% of my cash flow i can't deliver the growth i've had. what i think we are going to see in the best rock is single digits growth rate in cash flows in 2016. you can describe that how you will, is that victory or not, it is certainly different than what we experienced the last five years. >> question right here. >> nick snow with oil and gas
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journal. thanks for having this. i find it interesting that nobody has said much about transportation and you have a former director. i happen to know because somebody at the federal railway administration told me a couple of summers ago that it is fnsa responsible for writing the final regulations that dot issued. i wonder if any of you would be willing to address the implications of transportation as they effect u.s. access to global markets, particularly for crude oil. >> thank you for my question. that was on my list but we were running out of time. >> well i am going to take a crack at it. crude by rail has been a subject near and dear to my heart written a lot about it over the
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last 12 months. you just made the point, you're right, the new regulations have come out recently requiring a whole new set of tanker cars phase out of existing tanker cars in the next five to seven years or so, then this introduction of new type of brakes. the industry said they're going to fight that. we don't know where it ends up. i'm not sure how that's going to impact right now export levels. primarily because really what crew by rail now is driving is it is feeding east coast refiners. these are refineries that existed on nigeria and angolian crude for a long time. from what i have seen and what i expect to happen the next few months, i think this is an important open question. just to step back so everyone understands what we are talking about, the backenshale in north
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dakota went from 100,000 barrels a day of production in 2008 to right now about 1.2, 1.1. tenfold increase. we didn't build pipelines to accommodate all of that. we figured out you can put it on train cars. now we are moving an incredible amount of volume of crude never had before in train cars. actually we did before but it was in the 19th century. this is the modern equivalent. we are putting them on older tank cars which have shown not to be up to snuff. we've had a number of train car derailments involving both older train cars and newer generation at 30 miles per hour and results in giant fire balls as this crude is very gassy is very flammable. the question has come up, okay, we had these accidents in places like castleton, north dakota, 27
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people lived in the town. but the train cars are going through chicago and philadelphia and albany and large population centers. the question it seems they're asking, how do you make it safer if moving crude? i think that's an open question now. you have extraordinarily powerful entities involved. the railroad industry is enjoying lots of revenue from this. the oil industry needs this to keep going. they don't want to lose seven or eight00,000 barrels a day of production. keep an eye on the space. there's incredibly regulatory clash going on in washington. as a reporter i would tell you it is fun to watch and report on. >> talking to producers are
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they going to shift back to pipe, and they're making that change on available pipe space, but they're going to commit to new pipelines. if the global model is correct, single digits rate of growth overall, the pipeline capacity would be more than enough to satisfy future production growth out of the basin. i think some of the tier two rock is not going to produce any more anyway right, so you're not going to have that explosive growth rate to handle. it is east coast refineries and west coast. what goes to west coast they're going to have to move product via rail. anything else gulf coast bound increasingly piped. [ inaudible ] >> take a mike please. >> we will shut you down. congress is going to shut you down. i am not kidding. you have a lot of pissed off
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people. if their neighborhoods blow up, they're not happy. the other question is technical. could you tell me what refrack means. >> yes. as you are aware when oil and gas are produced from gas shale gas shale itself is very permanent eeable. what makes production possible are hydraulic fractures in gas shale. it is impossible to fill it all with hydraulic fractures at one time. refrack is a second stimulation of reservoir with the hope that that second stimulation will put fractures in new volumes of rock that weren't accessible with the first fracture. the well has to be temporarily shut down while rock is broken
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again. >> thank you. patricia shuker. the white house gave conditional approval for the arctic, you emphasize on lesson learned. my question is how can lesson learn be applied in the arctic if the drilling starts. >> is that for me? >> any of you. >> i'll take a crack at it. we've had tremendous experience in the arctic to begin with and anwar has about the same geology as the geology to the west. i think maybe the first lesson to learn here is that maintenance of the alaskan pipeline is going to be incredibly important. the alaska pipeline is aging. british petroleum, for example, got in trouble because they didn't sufficiently maintain
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that pipeline. that won't happen if this new area of arctic is open. i think we learned a lot about managing fluids that are produced with the oil and that would be how does one dispose of them. incidentally, that's a nontrivial problem in a distant place like alaska. and i don't know what the answer is. i imagine these wells if the area is ever opened up one of the first questions regulators will have, how are you going to manage waste waters. and i don't have an answer for that. there are a number of other issues including protecting the upper part of the wells with better casing and cement jobs. these are all lessons coming out of gas shale. i am sure there are others, too
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but i am not prepared to address those. >> thank you. right here. >> question one. is it possible to convert the entire u.s. truck fleet and for that matter railway system to use compressed natural gas instead of oil, instead of diesel? i mean, given how low the prices of gas are, seems that you can keep producing more, at these prices, once you do that, you make a huge difference to the demand for oil not just in the u.s. but the world. i mean, is this a potential game changer? the second question i have, you mention two problems of water. one it is not enough then you say the problem is how do i dispose of excess water. one is for initial fracking, the
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other is sea water blows back and you have to dispose of it. i heard of technique of people saying instead of initially injecting water, we can inject natural gas liquids. that will frack it and that will then come back. then there's no question of -- you're almost recycling the same thing again and again. so then the need for fresh water dissipates. is that feasible? >> well, all right. you asked two or three questions. let me remind you there is a man, investor t. boone pickens who was a smart geologist until he got into the business of equities. he attempted something called the pickens plan. that was to build a lot of wind infrastructure and he put a lot of money into west texas wind farms. what he was doing was then
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hoping that natural gas could be used not for manufacturing electricity but for compressed natural gas vehicles. so it really is technically possible. in fact, in pennsylvania one of the early hopes is that there would be a series of compressed natural gas stations built on the turnpike along i-80 for just this particular purpose. so yes, it is technically possible. now, let me address the second question which was why don't you use compressed natural gas to fracture wells, and i can think of two reasons why that's not very practical, one of which is i would not want to be around a drill rig when you are running very explosive materials at very high pressure down a well bore. i mean, that's just incredibly dangerous, the beauty of using water is it doesn't blow up when it is under high pressure before
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it gets put down the well. the second reason for not doing that is that fracture stimulation itself is only as good as the transfer of energy from the surface to the rock itself. and using natural gas, for example, to fracture wells means that you spend a lot of energy compressing a compressible fluid that will then expand on its own accord down the bore hole without transferring that energy into the rock itself, so it is a much less efficient way of breaking rock apart. in this business where every fracture really matters, the more fractures you create, the better off you are. and water allows this to happen. all the energy in the surface is transferred to breaking rock apart at depth.
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>> one of the things was use of gases. it is happening in canada and it had some application, had some success in canada. but in the u.s. the study so far suggests not only that it is not working but there's no intermediate view that it will work. it could i just don't remember the technical issues could be the nature of the rock and depth, as terry was saying we have a longer way to go to deliver that energy. i did scud ee on c and g and l and g within vehicles what would really change things is the consumer adoption of cng vehicles. we have a lot of things like sanitation trucks, 100% of them are running on cng. a lot of commercial vehicles running on cng. when i am refilling, i need to know i am coming back the same time. i can't be stuck out there running out of natural gas. when we look at that in the
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pickens plan, et cetera one thing you needed to do was relevant row -- retrofit gas stations. doesn't sound like much like $50,000, that was going to come from the government and i don't think anything is coming from the government for that sort of thing, so i think it died its own death. i suspect because the combustion engine is getting better and better, don't need tax credits handouts, pay more for miles per gallon. maybe the real test is a battery engine. but i don't see natural gas vehicle being a competitive threat in the future to gasoline. >> here. >> thank you. david kroicher from heritage foundation. wanlt to thank you, this is an interesting panel. i was wondering if you could go
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back to the cameron government one of the main plans was to go after shale gas, and whether they can do it whether we will be able to -- our service companies will be able to get business there, is it the right kind of rock, whatever it is that's interesting. that's a big issue. >> i don't know whether it is the right kind of rock. i can tell you that there has been significant anti-frack back lash. but you're right, the cameron government has been enthusiastic, has been pushing this and just got another five years. so i would certainly keep an eye on that. they're going to run into i think the same problems that everyone else is, how do you in order to accommodate anti-frack sent meant, how do you incentivize local communities to open their doors to this.
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i haven't seen any suggestions that get you there so i think it is an incentive game. do you know, is the rock supposedly good in midland basin? >> major problem in the midland basin, the area from birmingham and manchester going east is that that rock is very heavily faulted. it is a much more complex rock than marcellus. also this is the problem, one of the primary problems in china. the density of the fault networks is made clear because obviously they had a couple of earthquakes, for example, that were set off. they were small earthquakes set off by fracking, they had to deal with them. and it is not entirely clear that the gas shale in england can be made economical. profitable given perception in
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that area of england. >> i have a question for the panel. it was huge enthusiasm from the very beginning few years ago regarding shale from poland to romania. there were some works there and they were stopped. it is a matter of, i don't know, profitability of the resources that are inside or it is a matter of conjunction of the market or could be influenced issues in this regard. >> i'll answer the first part. then i am going to pass it off
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to my colleagues. i've spent some time in a number of those countries and gas shale that we are talking about in poland runs from poland through ukraine, shows up in turkey. it is sourced in organic fossil. and if there's an analogy in america, it probably is the utica gas shale. and turns out that the major issue is the quality of the rock. and it doesn't really matter what the politics are or how the local people feel. if the quality of the rock isn't there to make this work, the way that it has with marine shale like the marcellus, then the rest of it doesn't matter. i'm sure there's some politics going on and other things as well that make it tough.
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the rock quality itself is disappointing. >> i'm not an expert on eastern europe politics but your point is absolutely right the political discussion comes secondary to the rock. if the rock is no good or hasn't been discovered a way to make that rock work the rest is a moot point. >> this is one of the things that's amazing about the anti-fracking revolution, which is that russell made this point earlier, without testing the gas shale to know whether it is worthwhile or not, it seems to me a little nearsighted for government to say no, we are not going to look at all. the french, for example, have a wonderful opportunity, at least a test in the paris basin. the british ran into this situation south of london where a company quad ril a, was going to drill a well a vertical well
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to test the rock. they weren't even going to fracture the rock, they were going to drill to see what was there, and that got shut down so it is very difficult for the government to know what the path forward is without knowing what's there. that's the first step. >> i think we have come to the end of our session. i want to thank very much our esteemed panelists who have come from texas and pennsylvania to come and talk to us today and to you folks for being engaged and asking great questions. we hope to come back and talk sometime about liquified natural gas and effect of prices on that as well as discussing offshore some of the global offshore planned projects and how oil prices are effecting those in the future. thank you very much.
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president obama will be at georgetown university as part of a summit on overcoming poverty. he will discuss the issue with harvard public policy professor robert putnam and arthur brooks president of american enterprise institute. that's part of a three day meeting of civic, religious political leaders, will be live here on cspan3 at 11:25 a.m. eastern. later, covering the senate veteran's affairs committee, holding another hearing on changes in the way the va hand else the health department. that's at 2:30. tonight on the communicateors communicators, we met up with author peter nowak who says we are on a new phase of human development and through robots and other technology, likely to enhance the human condition. >> robots is an especially interesting one, because 2014 i
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think was the year of robot angst. i don't know if a day went by i didn't see a story how robots are stealing jobs from humans, and we're all going to end up out of work on a daily basis. you hear here is one that's better bartender better way teriter or waitress. the point that i think that's missed in that is that every prior revolution or advance in automation has actually resulted in better jobs for humans. we are really worried about the robots taking our jobs and having a hard time imagining what we're going to be doing not just 200 years from now but even 10 years from now. i think that history has shown that we will figure out a way to combine with robots to create new jobs again that were previously unimaginable. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on
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cspan2. a number of republican 2016 presidential candidates and others that are likely to run spoke at the south carolina freedom summit in greenville over the weekend. here on cspan3, we're going to show you the first few hours of the summit including wisconsin governor scott walker, rick santorum, and former governor rick perry. watch more of the day long coverage at >> please welcome david bossey. [ applause ] . >> well, good morning greenville! what a beautiful day. what an amazing event we have in store for you today.
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and i'm just so proud to be here co-hosting this event. this unbelievably important event with my good friend, jeff duncan. i want to first of all say thank you to each and every one of you for coming and spending your day. it is also a fitting way to start out by saying happy mother's day to all you moms out there. appreciate you. [ applause ] . i get, as host, have a few housekeeping items. i am going to handle them quickly. we obviously have a sold out show here. if you need to leave or go to the lobby or go do something, tell an usher you're going to be back so they don't fill in your seat. we have folks that are going to be wanting those. if you want to come back in, you
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just need your wrist band on, which i think all of you have. at lunchtime we are going to have about a 30 minute period for lunch where we're providing you, actually tea party patriots provided you, everybody here a free chick-fil-a lunch brought to you by the local chick-fil-a stores. and that's going to be just outstanding. we are going to be doing that in the lobby at each level. so we will be able to go outside, get your lunch enjoy it, and come back in. amazing thing after lunch, frank lutz that most of you know of from television is going to be running a live focus group from on stage and in the audience. i urge you when you are done with lunch, stretch your legs, use the restroom, get back here. you're not going to want to miss that. as part of the business to this, i want to say thank you to our
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sponsors. without them this event would not be able to happen. mr. al moore who is a good friend of mine from st. louis, missouri is here, want to say thank you to him. tea party patriots again for being our lunch sponsors. breitbart news. i hope everybody goes to them for being the media sponsor, the other sponsor, hsp direct, national rifle association american legacy pac, tma direct. without you guys this event actually would not be able to happen. i want to thank greenville news, they're providing live stream for the event. this event was sold out for weeks. greenville news is giving people around south carolina and around the world the opportunity to see this event live on their computers at home on their live stream. also cspan is covering this
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event live all day. and we're really excited about cspan being able to provide the broadcast of this exciting event to every american across the country so they can see these candidates these unbelievable list of speakers, prominent leaders we have here today before you here in greenville, so i'm proud to do that. now sit back, enjoy the show. i will be introducing congressman duncan later but i want to welcome to the stage the first time my good friend congressman jeff duncan. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you what a great crowd.
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let me take this opportunity to welcome you to the freedom summit. i am congressman jeff duncan. it is an honor to co-host with dave bossey from citizens united. we have an amazing lineup of national leaders joining us today. i think it will make for a memorable, worthwhile experience for all of you. few months ago i had opportunity to attend and speak at iowa freedom summit in des moines. after a day on the ground there feeling the energy of that event, how they were so engaged in the political process, i knew we needed to bring an event such as that to south carolina to give you the opportunity to hear from these great leaders. as you know, south carolina holds the first in the south presidential primary. while many of the leaders have visited our state before and will visit the state many times after today, i can't think of another situation where so many will be at the same place at the same time. in many ways, this is the official kickoff to south carolina's first in the south
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presidential primary, and i'm so glad you're here to be part of it. thank you for that. [ applause ] so not only is this a great opportunity to hear from these national leaders, it is a great opportunity for these leaders to hear from you. for you to influence their policies and to let them know exactly what you expect and demand from our current and future leaders. so thanks for being here. and please don't be afraid to cheer. they need to hear that. all right. what a great day to be an american, right? so if you will without further delay, please rise for the presentation of colors by the american legion color guard post three of greenville, remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.
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>> arms. >> today we're honored with a very special guest to help plead us in the pledge of allegiance. this man is a patriot who has served this country in uniform, has fought to protect our freedom, and has demonstrated remarkable valor and bravery for his actions, he has been bestowed with the medal of honor, the highest award given by our nation's military. his medal of honor citation states the following -- for galt try and risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, while serving as an automatic rifleman with company f, second
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battalion regimental combat team 1, first marine expeditionary force ford in helmand province, afghanistan in support of operation enduring freedom. lance corporal carpenter was a member of a platoon-sized coalition comprised two reinforced marine rifle squads partnered with an afghan army national guard. in a small village in the marja district in order to disrupt any activity and provide security for the local afghan population. lance corporal carpenter were manning a roof on the perimeter of patrol base dakota when the enemy initiated a daylight attack with grenade, one of which landed inside. without regard for his own safety, lance corporal carpenter moved towards the grenade in an attempt to shield his fellow marine. his body absorbed the blunt of the blast, severely wounding him, but safing the life of his
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fellow marine. but his undaunted courage bold fighting spirit and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of almost certain death, lance corporal carpenter upheld the highest traditions of the united states marine corps and the united states naval service. please join me in welcoming an american hero, lance corp. cal kyle carpenter to lead news the pledge of allegiance. [ cheering and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you so much. please join me in our nation's pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america,
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and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty >> please stay on the stage with me. >> i've asked -- i've asked kyle carpenter to stay on stage with me for just a minute. corporal carpenter, for your service to our country and on behalf of the people of south carolina and a grateful nation, i would like to present you with a flag flown over the united states capitol in your honor as a token of appreciation for your service. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, a national hero, kyle carpenter. [ applause ]
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now, if you'll please remain standing for our national anthem sung by anderson resident and miss midland's 2015, miss tory sizemore. ♪ oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ thru the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪
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♪ and the rocket's red glare the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ [ cheering and applause ]
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>> i don't know about you, but i've got goose bumps. what a great day to be a free american. [ applause ] as many of you know that i'm not afraid to share my christian faith a and that i'm a believer in jesus christ. [ applause ] and so we're going to open today's festivities with a prayer by my good friend mr. tony beam. dr. tony beam from north greenville university will lead us in today's prayer. dr. beam? [ applause ] >> blessed is the nation whose god is the lord. there was a time in israel's history when they were at the pinnacle of power under solomon's leadership. they had just dedicated the temple. and the presence of the lord came so strong into that place that those who were administering had to leave because of the power of god upon the nation of israel at that time.
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it was at that time that god came to solomon and said solomon, one day, and that is the tony beam translation, one day the wheels are going to come off, and you're going to have a difficult time. in that day, remember these words. if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven. i will forgive their sin, and i will heal their land. the united states has been at the pinnacle of great power. we stand in need of this prayer today. let's pray together. father, god in the name of jesus our savior, we come before you to call upon you to forgive us of our sins. we call upon you, oh, god to return the light and the blessings to our nation as we cry out to you and to you alone. god, we come before you today to pray your blessings and wisdom upon these leaders who will
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cross this stage today. lord, one of them may stand before us one day as the president of the united states. god, in that day give them the wisdom of solomon. give them the ability spiritually to understand that our problems come from within first and must be dealt with there first and foremost. lord, keep their path straight. guard their hearts. protect their families. and restore unto us oh god, not only the joy of our salvation but our leadership role in the world as you return to us to a place of light, a shining place where we can be an example because we have called on your name and you have come to us, oh god, and forgiven us and restored us. we love you, lord and we thank you for your blessings, in jesus' name, amen. >> amen. >> thank you, brother. okay. let's get this show started. we'll be right back.
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>> forward march. [ applause ] [ cheering and applause ] >> wow. they're great. well, thank you very much. now it's a true honor for me to introduce our next speaker. after all it's not every day you get to introduce a hometown
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hero and a hero of the conservative movement all at the same time. jim demint is one of america's foremost conservative leaders heading up the preeminent policy institution in our nation's capital. he served as a distinguished member of congress for 14 years, leading on the causes of limited government, lower taxes and economic freedom in a principled and thoughtful manner. he has earned a reputation as someone willing to take on the republican establishment and the failed washington status quo. and i want to personally recognize and thank him for that. thanks to his efforts, the group of conservative change agents in congress is growing. as a united states senator, he forged the coalition, the conservative coalition now populated by the likes of ted cruz, rand paul, and mike lee. working tirelessly and
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fearlessly to bring battle ready conservatives to the halls of congress. our next speak eran the greenville-based demint group until 1998 when he was elected to the united states house of representatives. and jim demint kept his promise to serve only three terms in the house. and in 2004 he was elected to the united states senate, where he gained the nation's attention and respect as a superb conservative legislator and advocate. senator demint stood tall by working to end the corrupt system of congressional earmarks and by stopping the misguided 2007 amnesty bill. since 2013 he has led the prestigious heritage foundation transforming that think tank into a major force for liberty in america. under his leadership heritage has been at the forefront of innovative policy proposals and
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pressuring republicans in congress to fight for the conservative principles they promised to represent. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming my good friend and greenville's very own jim demint. ♪ ♪ we're letting freedom ring, chasing these small town dreams ♪ ♪ doing what our parents did, thinking we've all gone crazy lately ♪ ♪ it's the middle of america ♪ >> wow! welcome to my hometown. now, how many of you are in greenville for the first time? see a few hands out there. how many of are actually from greenville here? [ cheering ] well, i tell you, it is just great to be home with you.
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debbie is here with me today. to be in the upstate of south carolina, which is really the stronghold of conservative republicanism in the country right here, it really is. [ applause ] and we have some of the best representatives in congress of anywhere in the country. you've heard from jeff duncan. you know trey gowdy [ cheering ] they used to say trey has jim demint's seat. now they say jim demint had trey gowdy's seat. things change. and nick mulvaney is here from right up the road, folks. but i want to tell you why we have great representatives. it's because republicans in the upstate of south carolina are real republicans. they organize. they're solidly conservative.
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and they help elect good people. and even more important once they're there, they support them when they do the right thing. and our guys hear from them when they do the wrong thing. you keep them accountable. and that's what we talk about a lot. let's make them see the light but help them feel the heat when they need to. that's why we have great representatives. and that's what we're trying to do all over the country is just encourage conservatives to come together and help elect the right people. but more important, elect the right ideas. that's what we're about at the heritage foundation. that's what wins the day. and that's a lot of what i want to talk about. but first, i want to talk about being right here on this spot in greenville, south carolina. if i step out front, i can see most of my life. probably some you have are the same way. i was born about a half mile up the street here at the greenville general hospital. two months later, my wife debbie was born in the same place. we weren't married at the time.
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but before i was born right across the street here, my grandfather ran a gas station. i saw some pictures from the greenville news the other day. buck rollins. he saved enough money. he opened a tire and oil business right here on this spot in front of the peace center, on this property. i remember growing up as a kid, climbing on top of boxes of motor oil and climbing down through tunnels of tires. as i got a little bit older, i think i was 11 years old i started going across the street to the greenville news, piedmont at the time. i had a paper route. i had to go buy for my papers every month and buy new supplies of rubber bands. a little while later right up the street at the poinsett hotel. that's where all the proms were. later when we moved back to greenville, one of my first business locations was right across the bridge this old building that overlooks the waterfall.
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but after we got married and moved back to greenville, and a lot of you from greenville know this, downtown was dead. the merchants had moved out. no one would come down here to shop anymore. it was really terrible. but a lot of people got together. and i was privileged to be a part of that working with a lot of volunteer groups. a lot of entrepreneurs, businesses, local leaders, elected leaders. the chamber of commerce here locally. and over time through risk taking, through vision, through a lot of hard work, with no help from washington, i don't think even any help from columbia the city you see now was built from the ground up by the people who live here. and if you walk around now, it's so exciting, not just to see what is here, but to realize that this is how america works. we're built from the ground up. by the people and by businesses and risk takers entrepreneurs and investors. and that's what is happening all over the country.
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we're frustrated with what is going on in washington because they keep trying to do it the other way. they keep trying to build america from the top down. by running things from there. but you can't build things like this from the top down. you end up with detroit and baltimore when you have those kind of policies that try to control everything instead of trying to create an opportunity or a situation where there is opportunity for all. now in greenville every -- from a high school student with a part-time job to high pay white collar jobs you have opportunity for everyone because of what was built from the ground up. that's the philosophy we need to have. and we're frustrated with washington, all of us are. but folks, i just got back from seattle last night. and every year heritage does a resource bank where leaders from states all over the country come in to share their best practices. what has worked, how have they done it, and how can other states figure out how to do it. one of our speakers was governor
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paul lepage from maine. i was in the senate. the maine sister olympia snowe and susan collins said they had to vote for big liberal programs because they were from a liberal state. but this republican governor has pushed welfare reform. he has reduced taxes. and two years ago when he vetoed medicaid expansion under obamacare, they said he was toast in the election last november. but last november, he got more votes than any governor ever has in maine before. [ applause ] what does that tell you? what people want they want the courage of your convictions. they want leadership. they want people to tell them the truth and go out and try to do that. now he is busy pushing his legislature to eliminate the state income tax. you can do it in maine. we had leaders from illinois. i mean, last year, republicans, i mean, the state of illinois, a lot of democrats elected a republican governor who was
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promising to take on the public employees unions. i mean it was so inspiring, even the dead people in chicago voted republican last year. it just takes some leadership, folks. and there were people there from oklahoma and our neighbor georgia who were pushing education savings accounts to give children more choices and opportunities because they had seen what worked in arizona. that's something i hope we can do here. maybe a lot of leaders like palmetto promise institute here in south carolina, which i helped to start. hopefully we can push our legislature to do things like that. and in oklahoma, they were so frustrated the state legislature hadn't passed the right to work that the counties are now voting for right to work just in their own county. and all over the country, we see our ideas working and winning the hearts and minds of the american people. so those folks who say you got
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to moderate and go to the center and be lukewarm to win elections just need to look at the new governor of maryland, to look at what has happened in maine and look all over the country. our ideas work and they inspire people. and we need to keep talking about them. as we look at this presidential election, i know we're not supposed to talk about candidates today but instead of just maybe getting behind the first one that blows in your ear, folks, it's not about giving a good speech. it's really about the power of the ideas and the ability to inspire people. we've got to make sure our candidates understand not only what the solutions are, but what are the threats. we know out around the world and here at home we have the threat of islamic terrorism. but in washington, it's pretty simple. we have to fight the left every day. every day they're trying to take control of a new part of the american economy in society. they're threatening our religious liberties. you need people with courage and conviction. you can't compromise with these people, folks.
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the only compromise keeps moving you further and further to the left. we've got to fight them and we've got to win. [ applause ] but there is another threat. there is another threat that we don't talk about enough. it's the washington establishment as a whole. it's the entrenched politicians and the bureaucrats and the liberal media. it's the big unions, the government unions that are there. it's big corporations, the lobbyists on k street. and they profit from the status quo. and despite what maybe a lot of these big corporations tell you, folks, they're not there to create a free market economy. they're there for the bigs, for big business. and fortunateunfortunately, too many of our republican colleagues fall into that as you hear people campaign for senate, for congress, find out how do they feel about the export/import bank when they're in south carolina. it's a big crony boondoggle with so much fraud and corruption.
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but we've got boeing here in south carolina. it's hard to say we don't want it. and when these candidates get in iowa, do they want subsidies for ethanol? do they want wind credits because general electric is in their district? but what you have in washington now, instead of what is working on what's good for america opportunity for all, and favoritism for none, what you have is cronyism. and so much of what you see happens, when you scratch your head and say why did republicans do that, that doesn't make any sense, you can probably trace it back to cronyism in washington. the government playing winners and losers. folks, it's the big banks that wrote dodd/frank. it's the big insurance companies that wrote obamacare. none of this stuff is for the little guy. whether it's obama or hillary and they stand up and say we're for the little guy, you can tell them no, you're not. any time you're for big government, big government is not for the little guy. it doesn't help us build this country from the ground up. and we need folks now in public office, particularly those in
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washington and in the white house that understand that this whole idea of federalism, which simply means government closer to home at the state and the local level, it's more accountable, it's more effective. there is no reason why we should be trying to run education and health care and transportation and control our energy markets and our banking system from washington, d.c. [ applause ] so i just -- i want to challenge you as you listen to these guys. and i have to say i'm kind of proud that the first three republicans who announced for office were those that i supported through senate conservatives fund, but were all opposed by the republican party in washington. [ applause ] but it had very little to do with me. what it should show all of you if the people of this country come together around the right ideas, they can send the people they want to washington no matter what the establishment says or what any political party
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says, the power is in our hands to change things. but we need people who not only understand the right ideas and a big part of that is moving things out of washington. but the biggest missing ingredient in washington right now is courage, is people who are willing to take the heat and the pressure that comes inside of washington. we're trying to help with that because the noise inside of washington encouraging our representatives to do the wrong thing is much, much louder than the noise that comes from the people. as i said, the reason we have good representatives here is because the folks who represent us hear from us back home. you're organized. you have the right ideas. you support folks. and we need to do that all over the country. that's why i left the senate and went to heritage is i realized that politicians are just corks bobbing on the water. it's up to us to create the current. that's what vigilant citizens have to do. we have to build support for the
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right ideas so that when candidates go out there and talk about what we need to do in america to create opportunity for all, like more energy development, like more school choice, like tax reform, that americans recognize that as something that will make their life better. it's not a political idea, it's a personal idea. and they also to have see when the guys who go to washington are really playing favorites, who are picking winners and losers, who are part of the big crony washington establishment. you can see that pretty easily by how they vote. there are a lot of excuses. i heard it all with earmarks when i was fighting earmarks. they would say well, this is a good earmark. it's important. and you could find some that were good. but because you supported that one, you ended up supporting 10,000. and folks that's why we're $18 trillion in debt is because the people in washington now are picking winners and losers and trying to buy votes and campaign contributions from all the interest groups inside washington.
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but our job, and i know my job at heritage is to make your voices and the voices of american people louder than the voices that are inside washington. that's how we keep freedom here in america. so folks -- [ applause ] -- have a good time. there are going to be some great folks speaking to you. not as candidates, but we know who they are and why they're here. but we got a great group of people who love this country, who understand what makes it work. and i'm glad that they're coming here because they know they're accountable to folks sitting in this audience and audiences like it all over the country. we've got a great country. we've been blessed beyond anything we can imagine. it's up to us to keep it. thank you for being here. [ applause ] thanks, folks! ♪ let freedom ring tasting these small town dreams ♪ ♪ doing what our parents doing ♪
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>> wow bringing conservatism to you like nobody else. thank you, jim. it's my honor to introduce the next speaker, someone that really needs no introduction to folks in south carolina. one of my colleagues up in congress from the 5th congressional district a seat that is held by a republican for the first time in 130 years after he knocked off john spratt. my good friend, mick mulvaney. ♪ >> thank you. thank you so much. it's so nice to be introduced by jeff. for those of you who know, the four of us got elected in 2010 today, me, trey, tim and jeff. we're still pretty close. and it's awful nice of him to
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say nice things. you would expect him to say nice things. what he didn't tell you about me is i'm a terrible public speaker. i cannot give an exciting red meat speech. i don't know how i got to be in this position without being able to do that but i'm lousy at giving exciting speeches. so i'm not even going to try today to fire you up about anything. there is a lot of people here who are better at that than i am. i am simply going to give you one thing to think about, or ask you to think about one thing as you sit here for the next several hours and listen do all of these folks come through. and that's this. a lot of these folks are going to come through and try to convince you that they are great conservatives, that they believe in what you believe in they believe in faith and family and freedom. and they're going to want to assume a leadership position in our conservative movement. as each one of them comes up, i hope that you look at every single one of them through this perspective. the largest voting demographic
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group in the 2016 election will be people between the ages of 18 and 30. the fastest growing demographic group will be hispanics. look around you in this room. convincing you is not the issue. who can convince somebody else? so today ask yourselves who can talk to those folks, who can take what we believe, who can take our principles and ideals and talk to folks who are not in this room. and by talk to i do not mean pander. no one likes to be pandered to. especially people who think you're pandering to them for a vote. and by talk to, i do not mean watering down the message and watering down our principles. we tried that in 2008 and it didn't work. we tried that in 2012 and it
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didn't work. i'm talking about finding folks who can articulate conservative principles, to explain to you not only why they are conservative but why you should be conservative and why these conservative principles are what is going to save the country, who can talk to people about the benefits of capitalism. it's not easy to do. who can talk to people about the opportunities that are brought by freedom and liberty. it is not easy to do. who can talk to people who are not in this room about the dangers of government control and socialism. it's not easy to do. and it's been a long time since we found somebody or more than one somebody who has been able to take that outside of this room and take to it a broader audience. we are looking for someone -- man, woman who cannot only tell you what you want to hear, but
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who can tell the rest of the country what they need to hear. [ applause ] and if that's what comes out of this, as these folks come through today and you imagine whether or not this person is that sort of person, if we find somebody here today who cannot only talk about our principles in south carolina and texas and wyoming, but can go and talk to young people in new york and hispanics in california and african americans in illinois, if we find that person here today, then that will be much more exciting than any speech coy have given. thank you very much for all you do for the movement. thank you for what you have done for south carolina. thank you very much, especially to jeff for having me here today. [ applause ] ♪
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>> wow, mick came in under a minute. so we're gaining some time. thank you, mick, for that. because the next guy may need it. good friend of mine from southern louisiana i started in congress, elected in 2010. many of you met him at my barbecue a couple of years ago in anderson. congressman jeff landry is from a working class, middle class family from st. martinville, louisiana. that's down in the atchafalaya basin, down on the bayou. he grew up through louisiana's old. he is a conservative person. a little about him. he is a veteran of desert storm and left the military with the rank of sergeant. he received the army achievement medal, the national defense ribbon, overseas training ribbon, and louisiana cross from his 11 years service as the louisiana national guard.
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now, he may be a little difficult for us to understand because he's got -- he does have a cajun accent. but you're going to love him like i do. former congressman jeff landry the future attorney general from the state of louisiana. jeff! ♪ >> thank you very much for that warm welcome. but more importantly, thank you for being here today. you know congressman duncan thinks i have an accent. i can't understand why. but if you have trouble understanding me, i'll -- i'll get the text of my speech. you can find it on how about that? you know i am so happy to be here. i am happy to be with fellow conservatives who believe in
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constitutional liberty. i'm happy to be with those individuals who, like me believe this nation and our principles are worth fighting for. and i tell you what. y'all deserve the round of applause. give yourselves a round of applause. come on, give yourself a round of applause. [ applause ] you see, you are the leaders who will ensure that conservatism wins in 2016. you have taken your time and your treasure this weekend and what a great group of speakers we have here today. our slate includes men and women from across the country with diverse backgrounds, experience and solutions to the problems facing our country. it is this diversity that makes conservatism so strong. and it's not just these speakers, but our entire membership that represents all that is great with america.
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you see, we believe in an all mighty god. and that it is he who has laid his hand on this country. [ applause ] and that it is his law natural law, and it is not subject to amendment, modification, or revision by man. [ applause ] we believe that all life is sacred. and that we all have a right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. we believe in individual, not big government. we want people to have the freedom to create and achieve. we believe small business owners and hard work grow our economy not government bureaucrats or
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crony capitalism. because we built this country. [ applause ] we believe that all people should have equal opportunity, but that equal opportunity does not guarantee equal results. and that's okay. because we know that people create prosperity and wealth, not the government. we believe that compassion is measured not by how many people are on the government assistance, but how many people no longer need government support. [ applause ] we believe that a person should be measured by the don't of their character, not by the color of their skin. [ applause ] we are thankful for the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform and their families.
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[ applause ] we believe in the strength that comes from the family unit, that parents, not politicians know best. we believe that education starts in the home and is fostered in our local communities. our students should be empowered. our teachers should be protected from big government. and our parents given educational choices. we believe in checks and balances, that the founding fathers wary of federal overreach correctly designed our government to keepsake credit the rights of the individual. we believe our dually elected representatives should determine rules and law, not appointed bureaucrats working for the executive branch. and we certainly do not believe
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we are free people when our government is being run with a phone and a pen. [ applause ] we believe in the rule of law, and nobody including our elected officials, irs directors, or secretaries of state is above the law. we believe that patients and doctors should make medical decisions and not government appointed panels. and finally, we believe that the constitution should be preserved, protected, and defended. and when conservatives win, that's what we expect. [ applause ]
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conservatism is strong because of you. as someone who has served i know that we're all in this together. one nation under god, indivisible for justice and justice for all. [ laughter ] and so together let us restore our republic. and as they say down in louisiana, laissez les bons temps rouler. let the good times roll. thank you all so very much. ♪ >> everybody enjoying themselves so far? all right! well, our next speaker has been a leading conservative voice in his home state of new hampshire for over ten years.
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taking the fight for limited government and fiscal sanity to the liberal left. ten years ago, he won election to the new hampshire house of representatives where he rose to the position of speaker of the house, making the new hampshire house a force for conservative reform. he pushed through fiscally responsible budget that sent the liberals crazy. he has been an outspoken critic of obamacare from the beginning, pointing out that the disastrous law gave the government unlimited power. over people and the ability to take away health care that they wanted. over the past few years i've gotten to know bill o'brien well, and i respect him because he is a man of character who never strays from his guiding conservative principles. i'm proud to report that bill o'brien has spoken at our new hampshire freedom summit and our
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iowa freedom summit. and i'm so grateful that he wanted to come here to south carolina. and i'm glad he is here today, because he understands the importance of highlighting conservative leadership in our first three primary states. please join me in welcoming the former speaker of the new hampshire house of representatives bill o'brien. [ applause ] ♪ >> we have any fellow tea party patriots here with us today? greetings to you from new hampshire. i want to thank dave, my good friend dave. i'm honored to be here and to speak today. i want to thank congressman jeff duncan and citizens united for hosting this event. and to the many great
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organizations who are sponsoring it. there is so many really inspiring people who will be here today, it's almost impossible to thank them all. but really, the most important attendees are all of you, conservative activists from across south carolina who are here today. it is the opportunity to speak with you that brought me here today from new hampshire. but my message isn't important because i'm a former speaker in new hampshire. it's not important because i'm currently the new hampshire house republican leader. it's important because many of you -- like many of you, i'm a conservative activist. and it is an activist that i speak to you. see, in new hampshire, we have 400 state representatives. and it pays $100 a year. so you don't get many career politicians in the new hampshire legislature. [ applause ]
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it just doesn't pay enough. instead, our activists become state representatives. and i'm one of those activists. and like many of you, over the years i've heard the establishment party members and the liberal media tell us who we must nominate for president if we're going to win in november. and then having convinced too many of us to put aside our conservative principles when we vote in the primaries. the liberal media turns the remainder of its job, and that job is to promote the latest liberal disaster in the general election and destroy another chance to return america to greatness. so i'm here today -- so i'm here today, and i've been to iowa to spread the message that new hampshire grassroots activists
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are steadfast in our commitment to conservative principles and conservative candidates. we're committed to limited government and free markets. we're committed to personal sovereignty. we're committed to our unalienable rights of self-protection. we're committed to the right of every child born and unborn to life. [ applause ] and we're committed to stop the government's war on religion. [ applause ] and because of those convictions that many of us share, we ask you to make -- to join us to make sure that a conservative candidate wins next year's presidential primaries.
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we conservatives in the early decision states of iowa new hampshire, and south carolina must ensure that there is at least one party that is led by a conservative presidential candidate in 2016. we must not fall again to the quadrennial head fake that starts off with the establishment and the liberal media telling us to nominate a moderate so we can win and ends with that moderate losing because they cannot draw any significant distinction between themselves and the liberal party's candidate. [ applause ] we must not vote for second best or compromise. we in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina must not send forward another candidate into a presidential debate with a
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democratic nominee who does not have the courage of his conviction or has no convictions at all. let us nominate a candidate with conservative conviction, convictions that match our own. i don't know what is worse both parties nominating candidates merely because they have well-known dynastic names or the conservative party nominating a candidate who will run to big government european solutions in the general election. are we going to do that sort of thing again? are we going to again have the liberal media laughing at us when they fake us into nominating someone who is too liberal for the country? >> no! >> when we win -- when we win -- excuse me, we win when we directly and unapologetically
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present our philosophy of liberty, unimpeded by big government and founded on individual sovereignty. we lose when we nominate rinos. [ applause ] let's make sure we win and america wins this primary season. will you in south carolina join us in new hampshire and iowa and make sure that happens? [ applause ] thank you. thank you and god bless you. ♪ >> a great lineup of speakers so far. and i'm telling you the energy backstage as we talk about conservatism and taking america back is incredible. the next person i want to
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introduce is a colleague of mine from washington someone that really probably needs no introduction someone that hosted the iowa freedom summit, someone who is rock solid in his belief in the constitution in the united states and his belief in america. please welcome my good friend from iowa, congressman steve king. ♪ >> thank you thank you. thank you all so very much for this south carolina welcome. i am -- i am so pleased when folks from south carolina come up to iowa. and we have a chance to interchange our activities and when jeff duncan agreed to come up and give a speech up there in january 24th at the freedom summit there and he also brought his shotgun. so we had to go out there and do a little of that.
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you can say i'm for the second amendment, but actually, if you practice it at every chance and create other opportunities, then nobody wonders. that's where jeff duncan is. he stands on constitutional principles constantly, and every single one of them. [ applause ] and, you know, i'm here, i wanted to talk with you about the early states and how this all works how much it matters. it isn't just that i woke up yesterday morning and decided that i would like to get engaged in all of this. i've been engaged in this for presidential cycle after presidential cycle. and we organize events. and we sat down once on a january 9th in one of those years and decide we'll do an event in iowa march 26th. and an event in new hampshire later on, and it culminated in an event down here on labor day the same year. and jim demint did each of those stops along the way. this year we did our event in
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iowa, january 24th. i went to new hampshire a week ago and spent the weekend, and now down here to south carolina and here is why. when this nomination process starts, the people who are engaged in it early, the activists in iowa and in new hampshire and in south carolina, we have more to say about who will be the next president of the united states on a per capita basis than anybody else in the country. and if we get it right, the country, of course is the ben beneficiary of the decisions we make. the candidates, i get to know all of them in a personal way if i can. i can tell you when they're looking at running for president, they don't always know exactly what their platform is going the look like. they have their principles. they melee out 25 planks and say i'd like to do all of this. now let's figure out what we can sell the presidency on. and then they look you in the eye and there is one out here you don't like so well and one you insist on. and this needs to be part of
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that. by the time they do their campaigning in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, we've helped them select the planks for the platform. and we've shaped those planks, we planed them we sanded them, we bolted them down. and in iowa, we hope to be able to do this put one were to candidates on that platform and right after the caucus ship them off to new hampshire. and there in new hampshire they'll grab that, look at it shape it, turn it around a little bit. and maybe we'll concur, iowa and new hampshire. and if that comes, they come down here then to south carolina. then you look at them. what kind of a job did they do in iowa and new hampshire? let's see. we've got this other plank we didn't really get up there along the way. let's make that platform a little different. let's empower this candidate and maybe a little bit more strongly. iowa can make a recommendation. new hampshire can make a recommendation. but south carolina can put the kiss of the nomination on the candidate of your choice. [ applause ] and that's why this is important.
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and if the candidate comes out of south carolina with a resounding victory, then that whole -- that whole sec primary that looks like it's going to take place, all that of is going to take your recommendation. and what happens? our values arrive in the oval office with a president who believes like we do. [ applause ] and all of the things that have i the privilege to do like writing pieces of legislation introduce them try to get them passed into law, all of that pales in comparison to what all of us together can do to get the right president. and if you don't think about that maybe the same way that i do i'll tell you look how much president obama has affected policy in this country from the oval office. i mean not very much if you took out the unconstitutional stuff. but the unconstitutional stuff is a very troubling component of this. the most important thing the next president of the united
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states must do is restore this constitution back to the text of its original meeting. [ applause ] that has to happen. president obama has violated this constitution over and over again, multiple times on obamacare, multiple times on immigration. and i've asked the question, he has defied article 1, the united states congress, and the law and decided he can make up his own laws. he has also decided that he'll ignore the laws he doesn't want to enforce. even though he take answer oath to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, even though. and so we know that he defies article one, the congress. but i've been asking the question now for a year or more, what happens when there is a confrontation between president obama and article 3, the courts?
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will he defy the courts as he does the congress? now we know he has. with the order of judge hanen just the other day they continued the unconstitutional lawless amnesty work permits that are coming out of dhs even though judge hanen ordered them to stop. so we need to -- time is a little short to accomplish that. but we need to restore this constitutional. the next president needs to do that. and i wanted to give you a piece of hope. and it works something like this. a lot of people will agree that jimmy carter wasn't a great president. but maybe the best thing he did -- yeah maybe the best thing he did was prepare this country to vote for a conservative principled president, and he gave us ronald reagan. [ applause ] now, if that makes you happy, think of this. when i compare jimmy carter to
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barack obama, i actually -- i didn't think i would ever say this, i actually miss jimmy carter. but if jimmy carter gave us ronald reagan, think how great our next president will be! [ applause ] our next president will be a president that will give us a strong national defense. he'll be a president who will identify our enemy, radical islam. our next president will be a president that will identify how we defeat that ideology of radical islam, that will have the comfort of knowing that the united states defeated a number of ideologies within a half a century in the 20th century, defeated japanese imperialism and italian fascism and german
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nazism nazism. and it took 45 years of the cold war to defeat the ussr in the cold war. we used to think we could not defeat an ideology. yes, we can do that. [ applause ] and that is we need to do cyberwarfare against them offensive and defensive shut off their money wherever it comes from wherever it transfers through, and wherever it goes. we need to shut down their misinformation educational effort all over the world wherever we can. we need to build a strong alliance with the moderate muslim countries so that they will work with us. we need to improve our global human intelligence so then when we target our kinetic action, it's as effective as it can be. and we need to honor our noble military wherever they are, however they serve our country. [ applause ] and then you know people expect me to bring up the topic
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of immigration for some reason. >> do it! >> i just don't think i need to say that much but here is how i describe it. i want to build a wall, a fence on the southern border. we're building four-lane interstates across iowa through the expensive corn fields. we're putting two fences there four lanes of highway. we seed it. we grade it. we engineer it and pay for the archaeology, engineering. we're doing that for $400 million a mile and we're spending $6 million a mile for every mile of our southern border every year and most of it doesn't even have a fence. i don't say build two miles of fence. i say build the fence until they stop going around the end. that's we figure out how long we have to build it. [ applause ] and we need to restore the respect for the rule of law. [ applause ]
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and -- and so often there will be things come out in the press that says steve king's anti-immigrant. i go back to you can find no statement i've ever made that would support that allegation. but they're conflating legal and illegal immigrants together to try the get you to not be able to think straight. and of course you do they don't. you think straight that. >> don't think straight. so here is what i would say. immigration is really -- there is a way i can make an accommodation. i did this in a debate once when my opponents challenged me. and i just said well, i'm for open borders. and that did get their attention. i said well sure. every time we let an immigrant in we'll deport a leftist. i'll make that deal all day long. [ applause ] we can build an even greater country if we do that. we'll ruin a lot of others by shipping them out. but we can build an even greater
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country. and then here is what i'm going to ask you. what i do is this. this country needs its soul restored. it has been badly damaged over the last six years. so my prayer is that god raises up a leader whom he will use to restore the soul of america. [ applause ] god bless you all. ♪ >> how about that steve king.
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our next speaker is someone who knows how to communicate our conservative values. kellyanne conway has developed her life to taking conservative -- to making conservative leaders into great communicators. great communicators. she's conducted extensive research into the opinions and believes of the american people. she is equipped leading conservative voices with the research and knowledge they need to be effective including michelle bachman steve king, and newt gingrich. she led the move to dismantle the left's dishonest war on women, and she helped defeat what the left liberal attacks, and they fell on deaf ears because the public is not buying it anymore. and it is in large part because of her work. in addition to being a wife and
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mother of four she's built one of the most respected polling and public research firms in america, proving that conservative values like hard work and perseverance really do pay off. she understands -- her understanding of the free market and the opinions of everyday americans give her a unique insight into how we can win our country back from the liberals like barack obama and hillary clinton and the ehollywood elite. i'm excited she's here today to deliver remarks about the state of the conservative movement. ladies and gentlemen please give a warm welcome to my friend kellyanne conway. ♪ ♪ [ applause ]
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>> good morning, south carolina. thank you for having me here today, and my 10-year-old daughter is with me, claudia conway. i'm tired of hearing about the demographic challenges. i was backstage, and i have four children. that's one of the demographic challenges. today we celebrate the one thing that binds all of us. freedom. this is the freedom summit. today we honor and think about the school children giving the pledge of allegiance every morning, that aspiring entrepreneur who wants out of the daily grind and convert her passion and her hobby into a business. we honor the 27 -year-old who wonders why he just paid a penalty to not buy government run health care that he does not want and can't afford.
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[ applause ] we think about the freedom that drives the peaceful protesters the faithful worshippers, and the father with the firearm close by to protect his family. and, of course we think about the elderly veteran who sacrificed so much just so we can sit in a place like this and speak freely, who now is facing his most formidable challenge walking into a corrupt and apathetic va hospital that should give him a hero's welcome rather than the red tape and run around. [ applause ] conservatism conservatism, freedom is on the ascend ascend ascendancy. look at the results of the last election. look at the election in the u.k. that's right. conservatives in the u.k. ran on
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reigning in the budget deficit on decreasing wasteful spending on welfare programs and deciding whether or not to continue with the centralization of the e.u. so conservativeism is on the rise. why are we here today? we are here to see some presidential candidates. this is not a dog and pony show. this is a job interview, and you're doing the interviewing. [ applause ] so let's think about what you really want to know. can i see you as my commander-in-chief? what will you do to protect my pocketbook concerns and my personal liberties? the question is not who can win. the question is who can lead? [ applause ] this is pedalled by people who want to tell you who can win.
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they choose, listen, people who would never ever support a republican for president tell you which republicans can win, run the other way. they know exactly who cannot win. you are a free thinker, and you'll make up your mind for yourself, and this year, we have an incredibly diverse field. already, we have six candidates, more to come, i'm sure, and it's a true free market pro-competition primary where we will have a big contest, a big battle of ideas. now, if you'd look at the polling, you'd think the question is, who would you rather have a beer with? who would you rather have as a friend and neighbor? my favorite, which candidate do you trust to watch your children for a couple hours on a saturday morning? with four kids under the age of 10, i pick any of them. come on, uncle bernie sanders, come join us for a couple hours.
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[ applause ] kids, this is hillary clinton. [ laughter ] she may not smile all morning but she does creative things with her e-mail. [ applause ] freedom is on display here too because of this huge diverse group of candidates. the left screams about diversity, diversity, diversity so, today, we have a woman, an african-american, a couple of doctors, not one, but two latino sons of immigrants and so on. fresh faces, new ideas generational transformational change. they don't like old white and rich. their answer to that is hillary clinton. [ cheers and applause ]
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let's talk about hillary clinton for a moment, shall we? okay. i'm just not afraid of her. i know this is tough work, ladies and gentlemen. it's worthy work. i'm not afraid of somebody who is the second most compelling exciting person in a two-person household. [ laughter ] she's change her position so many times on issues this week that i miss the old hillary riding around in the van not saying anything. [ laughter ] now, we all change our minds on things, all grow, and we all evolve. this seems like expediency than evolution. voters have to ask themselves about a candidate. do i like you? are you like me? they are going to ask, do you like me? are you like me? she has very little in common with the average person.
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yes. that matters to people that matters to people. the challenge is more fundamental than that. there's a split of opinion according to a media poll last week on whether you trust hillary clinton. so think to yourselves would you hire someone engage in a relationship or marry someone or work with someone who you don't trust or think is completely honest and trustworthy? then i can't imagine why you would do that for president of the united states. what possibly can follow the but? i'm not sure if i trust her, but -- what possibly can follow the but when so much is at stake? also, i think this is the year hillary clinton plays the gender card this is the cycle ladies and gentlemen, to force a a two-way conversation on abortion. let's have a two-way conversation on abortion.
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[ applause ] so they want to know from pro-lifers, what do you believe? here's what we believe. we believe we agree with the "new york times" cover story, that a baby born at 22 weeks deserves medical intervention and deserves to live. front page story in the new york times. [ applause ] pro-lifers believe that a woman or a girl facing unplanned pregnancy does not deserve our scorn and judgment, but our compassion and our support. we believe that every human life is worthy and has value and dignity, and we'll respect that. and, ladies and gentlemen, pro-lifer also respect dissenting viewpoints. there's six republican female united states senators as i stands here before you here.
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three pro-life. if you can name for me five prominent female office holders who are pro-life. you can't. four three? one. you can't. they have been personaleded ed you can't. they have been personaleded ed you can't. they have been personaleded ed you can't. they have been personaleded ed purged from the party. there's no pro-life democrats left. nope. she's not an elected official. think about it. so let's ask mrs. clinton and people on the left. what's it mean to be pro-choice? i'm curious. what's it mean. does it mean abortion any time, anyone, anywhere? taxpayer funded abortion? half billion dollars planned parenthood gets and support's one party's candidates and does no mammograms? how about partial birth seven, eight, and nine month abortions. what about the halfway point? what about sex selection abortion? we need a two-way conversation on abortion, and that should be this year. the gender card will be played.


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